Tall mallow

Description:

Malva sylvestris is a spreading herb, which is an annual in North Africa, biennial in the Mediterranean and a perennial elsewhere. It can grow one to two meters tall, and with a growth habit which can be straight or decumbent, branched and covered with fine soft hairs or none at all. Malva sylvestris is pleasing in appearance when it first starts to flower, but as the summer advances, the leaves lose their deep green color and the stems assume a ragged appearance. The flowers can best be described as reddish-purple, bright pinkish-purple with dark stripes and bright mauve-purple. The flowers of Malva sylvestris appear in axillary clusters of 2 to 4 and form irregularly and elongated along the main stem with the flowers at the base opening first.

Habitat:

As an archaeophyte Malva sylvestris has a Eurosiberian southern-temperate distribution, but it is widely naturalised so that its distribution is now circumpolar southern-temperate. Malva sylvestris can be found along roadside verges, hedgerows, river banks and areas of waste ground.

Notes:

Spotted along the Ijssel river in rural area of Deventer, Holland.