MALLOW FAMILY 



(Malvacece) 



Herbs or shrubs with frequently showy flowers, and 5 petals, 

 the numerous stamens combined by their filaments into a 

 column around the pistil, and united to the bases of the petals. 



MALVA ROSA (Lavatera assurgentiflora, Kellogg). Flowers 

 pink with darker longitudinal veins, some 2 inches across, 

 borne on long axillary drooping footstalks. Leaves evergreen, 

 maple-like, 5 to 7 lobed, 3 to 9 inches in diameter. A shrub, 

 4 to 15 feet high, leaves and twigs abounding in mucilage, wild 

 on the Channel Islands of Southern California, and occasion- 

 ally found as an escape from cultivation on the mainland. 

 Blooming in spring and summer. In the environs of San Fran- 

 cisco it is a frequent hedge or windbreak around market-gardens. 



It is a question how the Malva Rosa has become established 

 in California. Possibly it is indigenous to the California isl- 

 ands, but there is a tradition that seeds were brought to Cali- 

 fornia from Europe by the Franciscan Missionaries. The Span- 

 ish name by which it commonly goes, means "red mallow." 

 The long name commemorates the brothers Lavater, Swiss 

 naturalists of a couple of centuries ago. 



