''Malva verticillata'', also known as the Chinese mallow or cluster mallow, is a species of the mallow

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Malva ''Malva'' is a genus of herbaceous 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 temp ...

'' in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Malvaceae Malvaceae (), or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include Theobroma cacao, cacao, Cola (plant), cola, cotton, okra, Hibiscus sabdariffa, ...

found in

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

from Pakistan to China. ''M. verticillata'' is an annual or biennial that grow up to 1.7 meters in high and can inhabit woodland areas of different soil types. The small, symmetrical flowers have five white, pink or red petals (0.8 cm) and thirteen or more stamens. Each flower has three narrow epicalyx

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s. The fruit is a dry, hairless

nutlet A nut is a fruit consisting of a hard or tough nutshell protecting a kernel which is usually edible. In general usage and in a culinary sense, many dry seeds are called nuts, but in a botanical context, "nut" implies that the shell does not open ...

. The leaves are simple and alternate. In temperate climates, it flowers from July to September and the seeds from August to October. The flowers of the plant are self-fertile but can also be pollinated by insects.

Distribution

The species originates in Asia. It is widely distributed in Europe and is considered an invasive plant. It is also present in North America, including most states in the USA.

Uses

The plant was an important leaf vegetable in pre-Han China and widely cultivated. Mallow is mentioned in

Huangdi Neijing ' (), literally the ''Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor'' or ''Esoteric Scripture of the Yellow Emperor'', is an ancient Chinese medical text or group of texts that has been treated as a fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for mo ...

as one of the five consumable herbs (五菜) which included mallow (葵),

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

leaves (藿), ''

Allium macrostemon ''Allium macrostemon'' (野蒜, ノビル), Japanese wild onion, Spring onion, Green onion, Chinese garlic, Japanese garlic or long-stamen onion, is a species of wild onion widespread across much of East Asia. It is known from many parts of Chin ...

'' (薤),

Welsh onion ''Allium fistulosum'', the Welsh onion, also commonly called bunching onion, long green onion, Japanese bunching onion, and spring onion, is a species of perennial plant, often considered to be a kind of scallion. The species is very similar ...

(蔥) and

Garlic chives ''Allium tuberosum'' (garlic chives, Oriental garlic, Asian chives, Chinese chives, Chinese leek) is a species of plant native to the Chinese province of Shanxi, and cultivated and naturalized elsewhere in Asia and around the world. It has a numb ...

(韭). It is mentioned in the

Zuo Zhuan The ''Zuo Zhuan'' ( zh, t=左傳, w=Tso Chuan; ), often translated as ''The Zuo Tradition'' or as ''The Commentary of Zuo'', is an ancient Chinese narrative history traditionally regarded as a commentary on the ancient Chinese chronicle the '' ...

in Duke Cheng's reign by Confucius to compare to the head of the Bao clan saying he is not as smart as a kuicai (mallow) because it keeps its roots to the ground. It was deemed to be a major vegetable until the Northern Wei, supposedly. The technology for domesticating mallow was well recorded in ''

Qimin Yaoshu The ''Qimin Yaoshu'', translated as the "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People", is the most completely preserved of the ancient Chinese agricultural texts, and was written by the Northern Wei Dynasty official Jia Sixie, a native of ...

''. The acreages dwindled since the Tang dynasty. In his ''Nong Shu'' 'Agricultural Manual'' Wang Zhen wrote that mallow came top among various vegetables, because "it could be alternative in years of crop failure, or be marinated to serve with staples". There were rare occasions that people cultivated or consumed mallow during the Ming dynasty. It is also grown as an ornamental plant.

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control verticillata Flora of temperate Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus