Sunday 3 November 2013

MALLOW

Malva is a genus of about 25–30 species of herbaceous annual, biennial, and perennial plants in the family Malvaceae (of which it is the type genus), one of several closely related genera in the family to bear the common English name mallow. The genus is widespread throughout the temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Europe. The plant shown here is Malva sylvestris.

The word "mallow" is derived from Old English "malwe", which was imported from Latin "malva", cognate with Ancient Greek μαλάχη (malakhē) meaning "mallow", both perhaps reflecting a Mediterranean term. A number of species, previously considered to belong to Lavatera, have been moved to Malva.The leaves are alternate, palmately lobed. The flowers are from 0.5–5 cm diameter, with five pink or white petals.The colour mauve was in 1859 named after the French name for this plant.

This post is part of the I Heart Macros meme.

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful little blossom Nick! Thank you for sharing the love up-close with I Heart Macro:-)

    And I really do hope you will participate in this year's 5th Annual Gratitude (word) Quilt. Instructions and a link that explains the origins of this project can be found at the top of my blog.

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  2. So elegant ~ gorgeous flower macro shot, xxx

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  3. Beautiful photo!
    Greetings, RW & SK

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