Mallow?

[Snadger]

I bought quite a few herb seeds last year to make a start filling my herb wheel. One of which was mallow.

I set the seed and the plants grew to about 3 or 4 inches last year then appeared to die!
This year they've sprouted again and are presently about 4 foot tall and have flower buds on them.
They look a bit like a perrennial Lavatera?

My main questions are, what can I use them for and what part do I use?

They are probably linked to marshmallows(the sweet) which I am not particularily fond of, but what are their other used either medicinal or culinary?

I'm sure some of you knowledeable grapes will enlighten me!

[Demeter]

"Take young leaves in the spring; gather flowers, with their stems, from june onwards, and dry them in a shaded by airy place.

"Mucilages and tannins enable mallow tea to alleviate coughs, colds and sore throats; allow it to draw for several hours, then gargle with it. Mallow can also be used externally for skin rashes. Its leaves can be prepared and eaten as a vegetable."

This is from the Aura garden guide on herbs, by Robert Sulzberger.

NB common mallow is malva sylvestris while marsh mallow (which you harvest by digging up the roots, apparently) is althaea officinalis - marsh mallow is described as a perrennial member of the mallow family malvacaea - so I guess they are related but perhaps, if the Latin name is anyting to go by, not all that closely?

I have more herb books downstairs, if you want to know more - I'm just too lazy to go and look right now

[Snadger]

"Take young leaves in the spring; gather flowers, with their stems, from june onwards, and dry them in a shaded by airy place.

"Mucilages and tannins enable mallow tea to alleviate coughs, colds and sore throats; allow it to draw for several hours, then gargle with it. Mallow can also be used externally for skin rashes. Its leaves can be prepared and eaten as a vegetable."

This is from the Aura garden guide on herbs, by Robert Sulzberger.

NB common mallow is malva sylvestris while marsh mallow (which you harvest by digging up the roots, apparently) is althaea officinalis - marsh mallow is described as a perrennial member of the mallow family malvacaea - so I guess they are related but perhaps, if the Latin name is anyting to go by, not all that closely?

I have more herb books downstairs, if you want to know more - I'm just too lazy to go and look right now

Thanks demeter.......methinks I'll have to check my seed packets for latin name of plant......deffo perennial though!

[Flummery]

See what the latin name is - that's the clincher - you can see why we use the botanical names, it clears up the problems of using similar names for different things.

Richard Mabey's Flora Britannica is a brilliant book for the old uses of plants, their common names, traditions etc. It reckons the Romans ate the leaves, flowers and seeds of the common mallow. We sometimes get musk mallow (Malva moschata) as a roadside weed here - lovely plant and yes, it's perennial.

March mallow root is used to make the sweet (or was in the past - it's probably made from some petrochemical by-product now - old cynic eh?)

The round seeds of common mallow were called 'cheeses' and one of the plant's names is 'pick-cheeses' - it was nibbled by kids in times past, when they knew a bit more about what grew around them (and less about x-box games!) and when lanes were less polluted froom petrol fall-out.

Fascinating, plants, aren't they?