Blue mallow

Malva sylvestris, the common mallow, is a robust biennial or perennial herb of the family Malvaceae growing 0.5 to 1.2 m tall, with sprawling to erect, often somewhat hairy stems. The leaves are rounded with five to seven shallow, toothed lobes and palmate veining, carried on long stalks. The showy flowers, borne in clusters in the leaf axils through summer, have five notched petals of bright mauve-purple marked with darker veins. The fruit is a flat ring of one-seeded segments, the so-called cheeses. Native to Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia and widely naturalised, common mallow grows on roadsides, waste ground, field margins, banks and disturbed soils. The leaves and flowers are rich in soothing mucilage and have a long history of use in European herbal medicine and as a pot-herb.