Malva parviflora
Malva parviflora
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Malva parviflora

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Malva parviflora

Malva parviflora is an annual or perennial herb that is native to Northern Africa, Southern Europe, and Western and Central Asia and is widely naturalized elsewhere. Common names include cheeseweed, cheeseweed mallow, Egyptian mallow, least mallow, little mallow, mallow, marshmallow, small-flowered mallow, small-flowered marshmallow, and smallflower mallow. It is used in traditional medicine.

M. parviflora has a decumbent or erect habit, growing up to 50–80 cm in height. The broad leaves have 5–7 shallow lobes and are 8–10 cm in diameter. The lobe edges are round-toothed, with varying hairiness. It has small white or pink flowers year-round at the base of leaf stalks; flowers have 4–10 mm long petals. The 2 mm seeds are reddish-brown and kidney-shaped.

Newly sprouted plants have hairless, heart-shaped cotyledons with long stalks. These cotyledons are 3–12 mm long and 3–8 mm wide. Stalks usually do have hairs. The first leaf is rounder and larger than the others. True leaves are round and weakly lobed with wavy, shallow-toothed edges and a red spot at the leaf base. The plant rapidly grows a deep taproot.

M. parviflora has a diploid chromosome count of 42.

Malva parviflora was described by Carl Linnaeus and published in Demonstrationes Plantarum in Horto Upsaliensi MDCCLIII on October 3, 1753.

The genus name Malva is from the Latin word malva 'mallow'. Mallow was described by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia (20, LXXXIV). The species name parviflora means 'small-flowered' and is a compound of the Latin words parvus 'small' and flores 'flowers'.

Two subspecies are accepted.

M. parviflora typically grows on agricultural lands and in disturbed sites such as roadsides. Its native range extends from the Mediterranean, through West Asia, and to Central Asia and can be found in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Malta, Spain, France, and Portugal. The species is widely naturalized elsewhere, including in North America since the 19th century. It is a naturalized weed in Australia.

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