Modiola caroliniana(L.) G.Don

Bristly Mallow

WFO wfo-0000450540 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Modiola caroliniana, photographed by Joseph Aubert
fig. a Joseph Aubert, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-10 / obs. 196634377
Modiola caroliniana, photographed by Alison Northup
fig. b Alison Northup, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195901025
Modiola caroliniana, photographed by Raven Dandridge
fig. c Raven Dandridge, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193825558
Modiola caroliniana, photographed by Leila Dasher
fig. d Leila Dasher, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194318081
Modiola caroliniana, photographed by Nonbinary-Naturalist
fig. e Nonbinary-Naturalist, CC0 1.0 / obs. 195639646
Modiola caroliniana, photographed by Jeff Harter
fig. f Jeff Harter, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 198690773
Modiola caroliniana, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. g Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195340723
Modiola caroliniana, photographed by Tom Ferguson
fig. h Tom Ferguson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 192601073

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.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 1,973 observations

Peak flowering in Apr, from 1,973 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 33 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.

  • Abutilodes carolinianum (L.) Kuntze
  • Anoda strictiflora Steud.
  • Malva caroliniana L.
  • Malva caroliniana var. decumbens (Willd.) Trevir.
  • Malva caroliniana var. neglecta Regel
  • Malva decumbens Willd.
  • Malva eriocarpa DC.
  • Malva hawaiensis H.Lév.
  • Malva juvenalis Lesp.
  • Malva prostrata Cav.
  • Malva radicans Larrañaga
  • Malva urticifolia Kunth
  • Modanthos caroliniana (L.) Alef.
  • Modanthos decumbens Alef.
  • Modanthos eriocarpa (DC.) Alef.
  • Modanthos prostrata (Cav.) Alef.
  • Modanthos reptans (A.St.-Hil.) Alef.
  • Modanthos urticifolia (Kunth) Alef.
  • Modiola caroliniana f. parvula R.E.Fr.
  • Modiola caroliniana var. brevipes Griseb.
  • Modiola caroliniana var. cumingiana C.A.Mey.
  • Modiola caroliniana var. erecta Thell.
  • Modiola decumbens G.Don
  • Modiola erecta Lesp.

and 9 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.

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