Althaea officinalis L.
Detail
- Family
- Malvaceae
- Botanical Name
- Althaea officinalis L.
- Common Name
- Common Marsh-mallow
- Synonym(s)
- Flora of Virginia Name/Status
- Althaea officinalis L.
- Comments
- Native of Africa; the entire plant, particularly the root, abounds with a mild mucilage, which has emollient properties. A mucilaginous paste made from the roots was originally used to make marshmallows.
- Habitat
- An old-fashioned garden and medicinal plant that has become locally established along roadsides, around old gardens and homesites, and in oligohaline and mesohaline tidal marshes of the central Coastal Plain. Infrequent but probably more widely scattered than the current map indicates.
- Native Status
- Introduced
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