The mallow family includes the commercial plants cotton and okra, and numerous ornamentals, such as hibiscus, hollyhock, and althea.
[Illustration: COPPER MALLOW RED STAR-MALLOW]
Copper Mallow (_Sphæralcea pedatifida_) is often confused with the following mallow, but may be distinguished by its thin leaves clothed with a few star-shaped hairs, the 3 linear leaves (bractlets) under the calyx, and the seed capsules, which have one seed in each division completely filling the cell. Both have upper leaves divided into 5 parts and lower leaves into 3 parts. This plant is a low, spreading perennial which forms clumps about 1½ ft. broad. It grows in sandy or gravelly soil, Southwestern Texas, in April and May. Several copper mallows are very abundant in the Southwest.
Red Star-Mallow (_Malvastrum coccineum_) also has star-shaped hairs on the leaves, but they are very dense and give the leaves a gray, scurfy appearance. The cells are usually 1-seeded with an empty terminal portion above. The plant is also called prairie mallow, red false mallow, and rose moss. It grows in low clumps, spreading or erect, on prairies from Texas to Southern Canada and blooms from May to August.
Mexican Apple. Turk’s Cap (_Malvaviscus drummondii_) is also called red mallow. The showy red flowers somewhat resemble a Turkish fez. The broad petals remain closely wrapped around one another at the base but spreading above; the stamen column is conspicuously prolonged beyond the petals. The red apple-like fruits are nearly an inch broad and half as high. They have a delicious flavor and may be eaten raw or cooked. The fruits ripen in the late summer and fall, a few weeks after the blooms appear. They begin to dry soon after ripening and split into sections, scattering the seeds which are borne in the center.
The plants are perennial, the leafy stems branching and spreading, forming a clump which is commonly 2-3 feet high. Growing abundantly in shade along streams in the central and southern parts of the state and in moist woods in East Texas, it ranges from Florida to Mexico. It is a desirable plant for cultivation and is hardier but not as showy, as the large-flowered Turk’s cap (_Malvaviscus grandiflora_), a Mexican plant now widely cultivated for ornamental purposes in South Texas.