Musk-mallow and Common Mallow

These are members of the Mallow family: Malvaceae. Musk Mallow is native and Common Mallow of ancient introduction.

Musk-mallow, Malva moschata

This plant is locally common on well drained verges, pastures and field margins. It is very distinctive with delicate rose-pink, or sometimes white, flowers. The flower gives the plant its name as it smells of musk, most noticeable when cut and brought indoors.

The upper leaves are cut into fine lobes and stems are sparsely hairy with swollen purple bases to the hairs.

Common Mallow, Malva sylvestris

This plant is found on well-drained waste ground and rough grassy places. It thrives here in the rain shadow of a 5 metre wall which edges a lane.

In contrast to the Musk Mallow this plant has a long medicinal and herbal history. The Romans ate the leaves, flowers and seeds both for food and a preventative medicine. Pliny said a daily dose would make you immune to all diseases. Pollen has been found in excavations of the Roman fort at Bearsden, just north of Glasgow, and it's possible it was deliberately cultivated there. Over the centuries infusions were drunk for digestive issues and respiratory infections, a syrup was made for sore throats and poultices applied to skin conditions.

It is tall with striking purplish-pink five petalled flowers marked with darker veins. The petals are notched.

Stems are hairy and stem leaves are cut into 5- 7 rounded lobes. There are 5 sepals. I believe you can see here the developing fruits: doughnut-shaped rings of nutlets.  Children still nibble these small round seeds which are widely known as cheeses because of their shape. They are bland, slightly nutty in taste. This has obviously given rise to a number of cheese related local names, a few of which I give here: Fairy Cheeses in Somerset and Yorkshire, Cheese Flower in Somerset, Sussex and Wiltshire. Gerard speaks of them as a "knap or round button, like unto a flat cake". Further examples of the plant again being known by the fruit not the flower are the names Billy Buttons in Somerset and Pancake Plant in Lincolnshire.

Acknowledgements: Harrap's Wild Flowers, Stace 4, Grigson The Englishman's Flora and Richard Mabey Flora Britannica