This family is known to many gardeners by the “mallows” cultivated as ornamental plants, which are called not only mallows proper (a family variety) or mallows, but also hatmas and stockroses (from close genera of the family).
One of the main industrial crops belongs to the Malvaceae family - cotton, which is a fiber used for the manufacture of cotton fabrics. Belongs to the family and a number of ornamental and technical plants.
General Description
In warm temperate areas, mallows are annual and perennial herbs, and in the subtropics and tropics, where a significant number of varieties of this family are common, there are shrubs and small trees among them.
The leaves with stipules of these plants are alternate, palmately divided or palmately lobed, less often -whole. Only the high-mountain variety, common in the Chilean Andes - the mytnik-leaved malvastrum - has pinnate, deeply dissected and densely pubescent leaves. This is a very original look in appearance.
Flowers of plants of the Malvaceae family are actinomorphic, sometimes zygomorphic, as a rule, five-membered and bisexual, often located in the axils of the leaves one by one or in bunches, but often form high-flowered complex inflorescences. The latter can be racemose, paniculate or spike-shaped, located in the axils of the bracts.
Features
Practically for all plants of the family, but to a lesser extent for cotton and hibiscus, the presence in all parts of plants of receptacles, which consist either of individual cells or of merged groups of cells, is characteristic. Perhaps they play a role in the water balance - they bind water. This is probably why many plants of this family can grow even in desert conditions.
In addition, many representatives of the Malvaceae family have characteristic pubescence and the presence of stellate hairs.
The most common members of the family
- The cotton plant that matters most in people's lives.
- Mallow or common mallow is a widespread plant. It is a weed and is found in vegetable gardens, fallow fields.
- Kenaf is an annual plant native to India.
- Stockrose is a common ornamental plant.
- Altey –an edible plant whose root has medicinal value.
In total, according to modern classification, there are approximately 4000 species in this family.
Tree cotton
This perennial plant is a shrub that grows up to 6 meters high. Homeland - Pakistan and India. The flowers are red, the bare seeds are black. This species produces a yellowish fiber of very high quality. Varieties of this variety of mallow have good resistance to insect damage and drought.
The most common varieties are those developed by Indian breeders: Y-1, AKH-4 and G-7.
Marshmallow
This is a perennial herbaceous plant. Marshmallow has a main thick stem, from which thin branches extend upwards. An adult plant can reach two meters in height.
Leaves are soft, alternate. The lower ones are round in shape and are temporary, dying off even at the initial stage of flowering of the plant. The middle leaves are also rounded, having a heart-shaped base, with three or five lobes. The top ones are solid. All leaves have irregular teeth, and their length reaches 5-15 centimeters. Velvety-felt to the touch, as they have a short pubescence. Flowers collected in bunches are on common short peduncles.
The whitish roots of marshmallow are short, thick, fleshy, many-headed, with a powerful taproota process, which is lignified in the upper part. It reaches 50 centimeters in length.
Marshmallow is common in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the European part, in the southern territory of Western Siberia, in some regions of Central Asia, in Kazakhstan and the Caucasus. You can eat it: eat the leaves boiled, stewed and raw. Used in food and boiled plant root. Young fresh leaves can also be used to make vitamin soups and salads.
In gardens and flower beds
Many gardeners practice growing stem roses from seeds. When to plant this plant and how to grow it?
Stockrose, like mallow, is a tall ornamental plant with flowers of various shades that can perfectly decorate any garden or house adjoining area. This flower is native to Egypt and Greece. More than 70 species and hybrids of a perennial flower have been bred by breeders. Varieties differ in height, size and shape of flowers and leaves, as well as colors. The most popular are white, pink, crimson, yellow, red, brick and dark purple mallows. Flowering period - end of June-beginning of frost.
Mallows look very nice (photos of flowers clearly demonstrate this) on and behind house plots. Growing this plant from seeds and using seedlings has different terms in different Russian regions. Most often, seeds are sown directly in open ground in the spring, namely in early May. At the same time, the plant does not bloom yet in the same year, the buds are formed only in the next season. Seeds can be sown insoil and before the beginning of autumn, in the last days of August, most importantly - before the first cold weather. Flowering in this case may come earlier, but only if the seedlings do not die from prolonged frosts and strong winds. For those who do not want to wait a long time for flowering, you can use the seedling method of growing. To do this, seeds at home are sown in February or March in seedlings. In this case, the plant begins to bloom in the same season - from late July to early August.
In conclusion
The mallow family, as we can see, consists of a wide variety of plant species and forms, but the most familiar and common are the mallows, which can often be seen along fences, along the walls of houses and in the form of hedges. It should be noted that it is in these places that they are most protected from adverse growing conditions, and they look great.
