Species
+

Malva sylvestris L.

Common Mallow, Common Mallow (EN); Malvilla (ES); Mauve des bois (FR), Common mallow, Mallow flowers, Tree mallow, Dzëwô panienka

Climate known 53 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Malva sylvestris is a species of the mallow genus Malva, of which it the type species. Known as common mallow to English-speaking Europeans, it acquired the common names of cheeses, high mallow and tall mallow as it migrated from its native home in Western Europe, North Africa and Asia through the English-speaking world.

Text from Wikipedia, “Malva sylvestris”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Malva

Malva is a genus of herbaceous or woody, annual, biennial, and perennial plants in the family Malvaceae. It is one of several closely related genera in the family to bear the common English name mallow. The genus is widespread throughout the temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Europe.

Text from Wikipedia, “Malva”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Norway +59
Wild records
616 in range· 89 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
738mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 84 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to March and May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 738 mm a year, wettest October at 84 mm, driest July at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Althaea godronii Alef.; Althaea vulgaris (Fr.) Alef.; Malva acutiloba K.Koch; Malva acutiloba Sennen; Malva albiflora C.Presl and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to March and May in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (561 mm of 738 mm) takes 8 months, September to March and May. Mean temperature moves 17.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to September and November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 738 mm a year, wettest October at 84 mm, driest July at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

738 mm a year at the habitat, 561 mm of it September to March and May. Wettest month October at 84 mm, driest July at 32 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 457 mm to 974 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -2.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.4 °C, the absolute minimum -7.8 °C, about 24 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.9 °C to 7.6 °C), warmest day 26.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 9 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 738 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 464 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost27.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 10–44RH 57–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 464 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / 5–1410 / 6–1413 / 9–1716 / 12–1920 / 16–2424 / 19–2927 / 21–3227 / 21–3223 / 18–2719 / 14–2213 / 9–1810 / 5–15
Night °C2 / -2–83 / -1–85 / 2–97 / 5–1211 / 9–1515 / 12–1918 / 14–2218 / 14–2215 / 11–1911 / 8–166 / 3–124 / -1–9
Rain mm69 / 36–10157 / 35–8457 / 34–7753 / 35–8459 / 23–8247 / 8–8332 / 2–8245 / 5–8770 / 23–9684 / 41–11283 / 52–12382 / 48–125
DLI12 / 5–1717 / 10–2226 / 17–3234 / 27–3939 / 33–4543 / 34–4944 / 33–5038 / 28–4529 / 19–3619 / 12–2613 / 6–1810 / 4–14
RH %62 / 59–6860 / 57–6559 / 55–6359 / 54–6259 / 53–6258 / 50–6257 / 48–6258 / 50–6259 / 53–6361 / 56–6562 / 59–6762 / 59–69

Each figure is the median across the 464 grid cells holding the 609 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 780:3587 (50.975, -0.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 464 distinct grid cells holding the 609 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 780:3587 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 51.00_-0.625, lapse-corrected -14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 37 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Madeira, Altay, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Tibet, West Himalaya· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Canary Is., Eritrea, Angola, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Réunion, Chita, Irkutsk, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Primorye, Sakhalin, Japan, Korea, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., New Guinea, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Uruguay, Amsterdam-St.Paul Is.
Kew's description“biennial or perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.952, 2.973 · in the densest population, 310 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 616 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 89 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 205 km away. 198 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 616 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Malva sylvestrisMalva sylvestrisMalva sylvestrisMalva sylvestrisMalva sylvestrisMalva sylvestrisMalva sylvestrisMalva sylvestris

Photographs: (c) Dr. Sven Gippner, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Marina Nioti, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Gianni Del Bufalo bygdb, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Malva sylvestris, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Activation of an oxidative burst is a general feature of sensitive plants exposed to the air pollutant ozone
Heike Wohlgemuth, K. Mittelstrass, Sabine Kschieschan, Jürgen Bender (2002) · Plant Cell & Environment
Leaves, flowers, immature fruits and leafy flowered stems of Malva sylvestris: A comparative study of the nutraceutical potential and composition
Lillian Barros, Ana Maria Carvalho, Isabel C.F.R. Ferreira (2010) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
Ethnobotanical and scientific aspects of Malva sylvestris L.: a millennial herbal medicine
João Cleverson Gasparetto, Cleverson Antônio Ferreira Martins, Sirlei Sayomi Hayashi, Michel Fleith Otuki (2011) · Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
Edible Flowers: A Rich Source of Phytochemicals with Antioxidant and Hypoglycemic Properties
Monica Rosa Loizzo, Alessandro Pugliese, Marco Bonesi, Maria Concetta Tenuta (2015) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Radical scavenging and iron-chelating activities of some greens used as traditional dishes in Mediterranean diet
Sedef Nehir El, Sibel Karakaya (2003) · International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
Polyurethane/carboxymethylcellulose nanofibers containing Malva sylvestris extract for healing diabetic wounds: Preparation, characterization, in vitro and in vivo studies
Arash Almasian, Farhood Najafi, Mahdieh Eftekhari, Mohammad Reza Shams Ardekani (2020) · Materials Science and Engineering C
PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND IDENTIFICATION OF SOME COMPOUNDS FROM MALLOW
F Z Sabri, Mousaab Belarbi, Salim S. Sabri (2012) · Journal of natural product and plant resources
Ethno-medicinal plants used to cure jaundice by traditional healers of mashhad, iran.
Mohammad Sadegh Amiri, Mohammad Reza Joharchi, Mohammad Ehsan TaghavizadehYazdi (2014) · PubMed
Nutritional and antioxidant properties of wild edible plants and their use as potential ingredients in the modern diet
Ana Romojaro, M.A. Botella, Concepción Obón, M.T. Pretel (2013) · International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
Polysaccharide extraction from Malva sylvestris and its anti-oxidant activity
Vahid Samavati, Amir Manoochehrizade (2013) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Espécies vegetais indicadas na odontologia
Francielda Q. Oliveira, Bárbara Gobira, Carolina Guimarães, Jamylle Batista (2007) · Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Malva 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.