Common Name: Malva.

Parts Used: Flowers, leaves, root.

Description: Perennial, grows to a height of 1-3 feet, with a mauve-pink flower, about 1 to2 inches across. The flower is occasionally white or lavender. Flowers from June to September. Musk Mallow has faintly musky, elegantly cut leaves on branching stems and rounded, shallow lobed basal leaves. Flowers all summer and through the fall. Plants form a bushy clump with woody bases, growing 2 to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. The entire plant has a mildly musky fragrance when bruised. The first leaves the plant produces in spring are entire but later leaves are very different, with a high degree of laciniation, being finely divided and deeply-lobed. Musk-scented flowers are in scattered groups at ends of branches. The flowers have 5 petals, notched, wedge-shaped with many stamens fused into a column around style with anthers protruding along column. The fruit is circular, hairy, in a doughnut-like cluster of segments. One of the nicest members of of the genus, Musk Mallow is an Old World perennial somewhere between a Hollyhock and Lavatera. All species in the genus Malva have edible leaves, and these tend to have a mild flavor and a good texture. Grown for centuries, this culinary herb has medicinal uses similar to Marshmallow, or can be used as an alternative to lettuce as the bulk ingredient of a mixed salad

Habitat: Found in hedgerows, edges of fields and waste ground. Newfoundland and northern New England south to Maryland and Delaware; mountains of North Carolina; west to Tennessee and Nebraska.

Cultivation: Easily grown plant, it will succeed in most soils though it prefers a reasonably well- drained and moderately fertile soil in a sunny place. In the wild it is found in fairly open and sunny habitats such as grassy places, pastures, hedgebanks and the sides of roads, especially on rich soils and avoiding acid soils. If you have a wildflower meadow for summer flowering plants then you have an ideal place to grow the mallow. It is a very hardy plant and will tolerate temperatures down to about -25°c when it is dormant in the winter. It doesn't love summer heat; but it does adapt well to dry shade or to moist soil. In either case, light shade or morning sun and afternoon shade are best.

Propagation and Reproduction: Like many mallows, it can be short-lived, but it tends to self-sow as long as you let it. Cut the plant back to the ground when the flowering is almost over in the summer and you will generally be rewarded with a fresh flush of flowers in late summer. Drought tolerant and easy to care for, Musk Mallow makes a beautiful cut flower, and is a plant butterflies lay eggs in. Hardy in zones 3 - 8. The plants are easily propagated by seed or by division, but I have found it does not adapt well to transplanting, especially if the plant is over 3 inches tall.

Constituents: Muciloginous.

Uses: The flowers are used in salads, and the leaves and young shoots which contain vitamins A, B, and C, are boiled as a vegetable. The roots and leaves are added to soothing skin ointments and cough syrups. Soaking the roots in water will produce a gel called mucilage which can then be easily applied to soothe cuts, bruises and burns. Take internally to relieve upset stomach and the respiratory rawness that come with sore throats, coughs, colds, and flus. Recent studies showed the Mallows enhanced white blood cells ability to devour disease microbes. The root has been shown to reduce blood sugar which shows promise in helping those with diabetes. Dosage: To make a soothing mucilage gently boil 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of dried root to 1 cup of water for 15 minutes. Drink up to 3 cups a day. For wounds and external application add water to dried ground root till you have a gel consistency to apply. Leaves can be used to reduce inflammations and ease bee stings, and in poultices to treat ulcers and hemorrhoids. Tea made from an infusion of the flowers given for colds and bronchitis.

Miscellaneous: All Mallows are under Venus.

Flower Essence: Assists acceptability, social oneness, for those who feel ill at ease socially.  For accepting the transformation processes that manifest themselves over one's life. Eliminates tension and stresses due to a fear of aging. On another plane, it develops trust and heartiness in shy people. Allows one to surmount insecurity and introversion.