Mallow

Malva Sylvestris

Malva sylvestris, also called bread plant, is a perennial edible and medicinal.  Unlike most garden plants, the entire mallow plant is edible and useful, from root to stalk, young shoots to leaves, flowers to seeds.  It is hardy through winter, tolerant of a wide range of soils (including heavy clay), tolerant of extreme heat, and fairly tolerant of drought (it may wilt, but will usually spring back into growth when rains return).  In our garden, USDA zone 7a, mallow grows year-round and has provided us fresh salads in January, growing outside (not in a cold frame or greenhouse), though its growth is most vigorous in summer.

Unlike most greens, mallow leaves can be harvested year-round; you can pick what you need, fresh, when you need it.  No need to till and replant short-lived annuals that constantly try to bolt, or that need special care to maintain their flavor; mallow is easy to grow, reseeds and tastes great in any season.  Use young or medium-sized leaves in salads or as cooked greens, like spinach; they really shine in buttery stir-fries.  They help thicken soups, too; the juices are thick and mucilaginous, like corn starch. That same trait is why mallow makes a soothing medicinal cough syrup (like its famous cousin, marshmallow). 

Mallow blooms for months, feeding pollinators throughout the warm season.  The flowers are an edible garnish.

Nutritionally, mallow contains Vitmains B, C, E and provitamin A, as well as inulin; mucilage; phenols; flavonoids; essential fatty acids; fibre; calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium and potassium.  The leaves are edible raw, but taste better when cooked; the same can be said for the seeds and roots.

The seeds of mallow are very nutritious, though not quite as easy to use as the leaves.  Mallow seeds are small, like chia seeds, and are encased in small pods that look like cheese wheels.  This has led to the nickname for mallow, "cheese plant."  The pods themselves, once peeled, are edible, as are the seeds inside them.  Supposedly, the pods were once considered snacks for children playing in English country cottage gardens.  Today, they are seldom eaten, due to the labor required to harvest all of the tiny 'cheeses.'  However, in hard times, these could still be a valuable food source.  Like chia and beans, mallow seeds can be sprouted and eaten.  You can also simmer the peeled seed pods to create a thick paste, which can be beaten like an egg white, for a vegan meringue.

Mallow leaves can be dried and stored for soups and stews, preserving their nutritional value well and adding flavor and thickening to the broth.  The seeds can also be dried, and ground into powder, to add to dishes.

Roots are best when the plant has grown several years, at least two, and the root has become large enough to bother harvesting.  The root is high in inulin, a dietary fiber that improves digestive health by feeding the microbiome of the lower intestine.  Inulin is slightly sweet, but unlike starches, this carbohydrate is not readily digestible by human enzymes, thus making it a diabetic-friendly resource and a prebiotic supplement for gut health.  Mallow root can also be used medicinally for a poultice.

Young mallow leaves

Allow mallow to grow two or three years, harvesting leaves at need (and flowers and seeds, if desired).  Keep it from getting too tall every summer by pruning it back or harvesting the top leaves more aggressively, because when mallow gets three or four feet tall, it has a tendency to lodge (fall over).  There is no harm in letting the mallow lodge, since it will go on growing happily in its new position.  However, for keeping the garden bed confined and orderly, and for keeping the leaves clean and farther away from dirt, it is helpful to keep mallow growing upright.

Hard pruning is fine for this tolerant plant, once established.  If it lodges and you wanted it to be upright in a neat bed, use hand pruners or loppers to cut the stalk a few buds beyond the root.  The leaves and buds at the base will send up new shoots and soon you will have an upright plant again.  Alternatively, you can harvest the roots from any plants that lodge, and let new seedlings replace them.

Mallow is a prolific self-seeder and the seeds germinate easily.  It is easy to turn a single mallow plant into a full bed of mallow plants in one season.  To prevent this from becoming a nuisance trait, provide mallow a bed by itself; it is easy to pull up mallow plants that come up outside of that bed, or to mow over them, but within a crowded garden it is possible for this fast-grower to become a weed.

Medicinally, malva sylvestris has many of the same qualities as marshmallow, although it is somewhat less potent than that famous cousin.  However, mallow is adaptable to many common garden conditions, and easier to grow, than marshmallow.  Both plants are known for their efficacy in soothing inflammation, especially internal inflammation: asthma, laryngitis, bronchitis, sore throat or dry, hacking coughs.  As demulcents, they help calm irritation of the mucous membranes.

Externally, all parts of mallow help sooth irritation when applied as a poultice or salve.  The leaves, in particular, are a common choice for bruise poultices and easing insect bites.

Internally, malva sylvestris protects kidney function, as seen in studies such as this one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3104358/ where rodents were subjected to vanadium poisoning, a heavy metal that accumulates in the kidney and induces chronic renal deterioration.  Control subjects showed the effects of the poisoning, but the rats given a decoction of malva sylvestris leaves showed healthy, normal kidney function, demonstrating the buffering effects of the antioxidants and flavonoids of mallow leaves.  It has been proposed that this plant should be viewed as a 'pharmafood,' or food-medicine, for promoting gut and kidney health.

Aside from its edible and medicinal uses, mallow can also be harvested as a bast fiber plant.  If this is the intended purpose, seed a bed densely with mallow and allow the seedlings to grow upward in a crowded fashion, to minimize branching.  Providing some support to the stalks as they grow taller, like a simple table-trellis, or a railing around the bed, will help prevent lodging in wind.  The taller the stalks can grow, the longer the fiber staple.  Harvest in fall and rhet the stalks as for most bast fibers.  Fiber extracted this way can also be used to make paper.

Additionally, the plant yields yellow and yellow-green dyes, most potently from the seeds.  The flowers can be used as a tincture for a test of alkalinity, which can be a fun home-science experiment for school children.

Finally, mallow leaves can serve as an emergency toilet-paper, and were commonly planted near outhouses, like their cousins, hollyhocks.

After reading all of the above, if you decide that your garden now needs a few mallow plants, send us an email!  We carry mallow seed and sell live plants locally (within range of Amherst, VA).  Our seed is harvested from our own garden, where mallow is our favorite source of greens for the kitchen.

Safety Note

Be cautious when using any medicinal plants.  All plants are subject to variability in cultivar, age, growing location, soil, climate, stress, fertilization, etc.  Thus, dosage with any herb or medicinal plant is never precise, as it is with isolated chemicals, and caution is required with any supplementation or therapeutic use of plant-derived medicines.  Please consult with a trained professional if relying upon herbal remedies, and always remember to inform your primary care physician if you use plant-based supplements or medicines.  There can be interactions with prescribed medications, as well as allergic reactions.  When first using any medicinal plant, start small and observe caution; be alert for signs of negative reaction and discontinue if side effects arise, until you can discuss your concerns with a trained herbalist.  Natural remedies are still chemicals!  Use common sense and be safe.