When does Cornish mallow bloom in California?

Most often in February. Across 2,510 dated, research-grade observations of Malva multiflora in California, the flowering season runs roughly January to December.

Peak February In flower 2,510 Examined 2,745 State California

Flowering 2,510 in flower of 2,745 examined

87%

99%

96%

93%

86%

81%

75%

77%

57%

77%

85%

Proportion of examined Malva multiflora in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	34	39	87%	73% to 94%
Feb	69	70	99%	92% to 100%
Mar	284	296	96%	93% to 98%
Apr	1023	1068	96%	94% to 97%
May	562	604	93%	91% to 95%
Jun	229	265	86%	82% to 90%
Jul	108	133	81%	74% to 87%
Aug	61	81	75%	65% to 83%
Sep	62	81	77%	66% to 84%
Oct	23	40	57%	42% to 71%
Nov	27	35	77%	61% to 88%
Dec	28	33	85%	69% to 93%

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Malva multiflora in California observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 2,510 of 2,745 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in California found Malva multiflora in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in California, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Malva multiflora

Cornish mallow

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in California. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.