Leaf
Liliane Roubaudi, Tela Botanica · CC BY-SA 2.0
Annual mallow
Lavatera trimestris L.
Also known as: Royal mallow, Rose mallow
Family: Malvaceae
60 cm to 1.20 m tall
Grown in sunny beds, ordinary free-draining soils
Flowering: June – October
Full sun
Not hardy, annual plant sown every year
❓ How do you recognise this plant?
Annual mallow flowers barely two to three months after sowing and carries on without a break until the first frosts — one of the fastest and most generously flowering annual bedding plants for minimal upkeep.
🍃 Leaves
Broad, rounded, slightly lobed, bright green
🌸 Flowers
Large, funnel-shaped, bright pink to pale pink, veined in deeper pink
🍎 Fruits
Small achene clustered in a disc
🪵 Bark
Upright, branched herbaceous stem
🗺️ Distribution
Native to the Mediterranean basin; widely grown in France as an annual bedding plant
🐝 Value for pollinators
Large, nectar-rich flowers, attractive to bees all summer
✂️ Horticultural uses
Fast-growing annual bedding plant with generous flowering, easy to grow by direct sowing
⚠️ Possible toxicity
No notable toxicity known
🌿 Other Malvaceae to discover
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.
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