Malva arborea

Tree mallow

Family: Malvaceae · Type: biennial · Not Native

Tree mallow is a naturalized biennial found in northern coastal California regions including North Coast, northern Central Coast, and Southern Coast in disturbed coastal bluff and dune habitats at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering all year, this plant produces rose to lavender flowers with five dark veins and a dark purple base, approximately 1.5 to 2 centimeters long. Growing 1 to 3 meters tall with a generally woody base and stellate-tomentose stems, it develops a robust and distinctive form. Its large leaves, 5 to 20 centimeters wide, are heart-shaped with 5 to 7 unequally shallow lobes, densely covered in soft stellate hairs especially on the undersides. The distinctive fruit is 8 to 10 millimeters in diameter, with (6)8(9) segments that are nearly glabrous to lightly puberulent and have sharp ridged edges.

Habitat: Disturbed places on coastal bluffs, dunes

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: NCo, n CCo, SCo

California counties: San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Diego, Monterey

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.