Malva multiflora(Cav.) Soldano, Banfi & Galasso

Cornish mallow

WFO wfo-0000449221 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Malva multiflora, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. a Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-18 / obs. 198692929
Malva multiflora, photographed by Henrik Kibak
fig. b Henrik Kibak, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196690267
Malva multiflora, photographed by carnifex
fig. c carnifex, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202531931
Malva multiflora, photographed by carnifex
fig. d carnifex, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202908688
Malva multiflora, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. e Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192595960
Malva multiflora, photographed by velodrome
fig. f velodrome, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190876885
Malva multiflora, photographed by Chuck Wilson
fig. g Chuck Wilson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 189410566
Malva multiflora, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. h Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189448174

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 30 botanical countries

Regions where Malva multiflora is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Egypt, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Selvagens, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Türkiye, Albania, Baleares, Corse, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoSelvagensTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.Lebanon-SyriaPalestineSinaiTürkiyeAlbaniaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe AzoresCanary Is.Cape VerdeMadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Malva multiflora, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Corse COR
France FRA
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Cape Verde CVI
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Selvagens SEL
Tunisia TUN
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Palestine PAL
Sinai SIN
Türkiye TUR

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 2,872 in flower of 3,120 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Malva multiflora 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. 2,872 of 3,120 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.cgje2x.

Also published as 32 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Althaea cretica (L.) Kuntze
  • Althaea silvestris Borbás
  • Anthema cretica (L.) Medik.
  • Anthema scabra Moench
  • Anthema tenoreana C.Presl
  • Lavatera cavanillesii Caball.
  • Lavatera cretica L.
  • Lavatera cretica f. stenophylla (Willk.) Rouy
  • Lavatera cretica var. acutiloba Ball
  • Lavatera cretica var. genuina Pérez Lara
  • Lavatera cretica var. macrantha Maire & Wilczek
  • Lavatera cretica var. microphylla Pau ex Merino
  • Lavatera cretica var. silvestris (Brot.) Pérez Lara
  • Lavatera cretica var. stenophylla Willk.
  • Lavatera cretica var. sylvestris (Brot.) Pérez Lara
  • Lavatera empedoclis Ucria
  • Lavatera hederifolia (Vis.) Schloss. & Vuk.
  • Lavatera mollis Ehrenb. ex Sweet
  • Lavatera neapolitana Ten.
  • Lavatera sicula Tineo
  • Lavatera stenophylla (Willk.) Rouy
  • Lavatera sylvestris Brot.
  • Lavatera triloba Sebast. & Mauri
  • Lavatera weinmanniana Trevir. ex DC.

and 8 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol LACR. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.