Malva nicaeensisAll.

bull mallow

WFO wfo-0000449449 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Malva nicaeensis, photographed by Dutza K.
fig. a Dutza K., CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205376165
Malva nicaeensis, photographed by Rafael Medina
fig. b Rafael Medina, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199395804
Malva nicaeensis, photographed by Joe Dillon
fig. c Joe Dillon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143340806
Malva nicaeensis, photographed by Joe Dillon
fig. d Joe Dillon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 140567745
Malva nicaeensis, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. e Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 123667611
Malva nicaeensis, photographed by Joe Dillon
fig. f Joe Dillon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 111169222
Malva nicaeensis, photographed by Erin Lalime
fig. g Erin Lalime, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 76970051
Malva nicaeensis, photographed by dannali
fig. h dannali, CC0 1.0 / obs. 62715940

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 39 botanical countries

Regions where Malva nicaeensis is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Egypt, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Sinai, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoTunisiaAfghanistanCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineSinaiTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanPakistanAlbaniaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe AzoresCanary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Malva nicaeensis, 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
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Sinai SIN
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL

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 930 in flower of 1,012 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Malva nicaeensis 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. 930 of 1,012 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 8 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 nicaeensis (All.) Alef.
  • Malva arvensis C.Presl
  • Malva circinnata Viv.
  • Malva cognata Steud.
  • Malva excelsa C.Presl
  • Malva nicaeensis var. liocarpa Reiche
  • Malva nicaeensis var. littoralis Merino
  • Malva setosa Moench

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.