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Mallow many health benifits ..its not a weed
Mallow: The Edible Weed With Health Benefits
Herbal Gardening, Herbal Remedies, Natural Living | 35 comments
Do you know this plant? Have you ever weeded it from your garden and thrown it away? Well, those days are over. Meet mallow, the edible weed with health benefits.
Common mallow is one of the most amazing edible weeds on the planet.
From now on, instead of throwing it out, you will gather the seeds and try to get MORE mallow to grow in your garden.
How to Harvest Mallow
Mallow (Malva neglecta, M. parviflora) loves disturbed soil and thrives in gardens, farms, and orchards.This isn’t a plant that you will find at the market, so you better start cultivating your weed patch!
Harvest the leaves when they are bright green and full of vitality. You can harvest the leaves when they are small and just sprouting up, or you can wait until the leaves are at the height of their growth. Mallow flowers are also edible.
How to Eat Mallow
Mallow is one of my favorite edible weeds. Chop it up, put it in salads and soups. Use it instead of lettuce on a sandwich. Mix it with kale or chard and steam it. Add it to smoothies and green drinks. Make a tea with it.I love to gather several large leaves, mince them into tiny pieces and sprinkle them over my dinner like you would parsley. Mallow is delicious this way sprinkled on rice, stir fries and just about any savory meal.
Check out the video below for an easy way to enjoy mallow!
Mallow Health Benefits
Besides being an edible weed, mallow also has lots of health benefits! This plant is full of mucilaginous properties that help to soothe and heal the digestive tract. It helps to heal gastritis, ulcers and any gastrointestinal inflammation. Just add it to your diet on a daily basis for several weeks.The mallow plant also makes a soothing tea for hot, dry days and is an important ingredient in my Firestorm Tea recipe for wildfire smoke.
But you don’t have to be sick to enjoy the health benefits of mallow. It is one of the nutritive, soothing weeds that anyone can benefit from using.
Discover healing plants that boost energy, heal skin, activate digestion and turn any meal into a celebration. Learn how to identify and use beautiful and delicious edible flowers and herbs in my online video tutorial, Edible & Medicinal Flowers.
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35 COMMENTS
Newest
debbie
thankyou I have been looking for information on these, now I know
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Debbie
Thank you for sharing
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Mike
There are green button things under where the flower was. I guess they are the seeds. Anyway, my grandma showed me to eat them, like 50 years ago. Never tried any other part of the plant, but I shall. They grow by our back door. Mike
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Shelly
Can you dry mallow to use later in soups etc.
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Yvonne
Kami, do you only harvest the leaves, or do you use the buds – little round pods – as well?
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Author
Kami McBride
Reply to Yvonne
I dont use the seeds, I use the leaf and flower
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Pat
Reply to Yvonne
The seed pods when green young and tender are excellent sauteed in a stirfry or added to soup. You could even pickle them. The seed pods look like miniature cheese wheels. That is why one of the common names of malva is cheese plant.
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Athena Blitz
I, too have it in an old garden and hv been trying to choke it out! Thank you for enlightening me
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moses omukunda
amazing we are integrating medicinal herbs .how can l see full picture of healing plants
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Author
Kami McBride
Reply to moses omukunda
HI Moses, i know, great to see so many people interested in herbs. I have pictures of the herbs here:
https://kamimcbride.com/mallow/
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Carla
That looks like creeping charlie. Is creeping charlie a mallow?
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Author
Kami
Reply to Carla
HI Carla,
no creeping charlie is not a mallow. i see how the leaves look a little similar, but this plant doesn’t creep…..
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Sweet T
Can Mallow be grown anywhere and any climate>? thx
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Author
Kami
Reply to Sweet T
HI Sweet, It grows in USDA hardiness zone : 4-8, so it grows in a lot of places, just not super freezing or tropical.
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Mary
Reply to Kami
Kami, I could be wrong, but I would think mallow could grow in cooler regions–anywhere it doesn’t freeze during the night and is fairly warm during the day. Grandmother drank it on a daily basis for years and she lived to 94, though she didn’t call it mallow. lol Thank you for a great article. Great info.
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Tamara
Reply to Mary
Mary, I live in the desert of eastern washington…Hot summers, cold winters and mallow seems to love it…it tries to take over my gardens every year.
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Sophia
Reply to Kami
I live in very cold Minnesota where our winter temps are minus, as in minus 36 at times in the winter. Our summers are hot and humid. My mallow comes back in full every year. You can even mow it and it wont hurt a bit. DH didn’t know I was “growing” it and thought it was just weeds, lol. Came back in a couple weeks huge and beautiful. I would consider this a mega hardy multi-zone crop because it grows anywhere grass would grow.
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Marie
Reply to Kami
I have got seed from amazone and I live in the tropic it is growing very well and it’s very hot these days here
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Mischa
Reply to Kami
We get mallow like crazy here in zone 9 of Central Valley California.
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Mallow: Eat Your Healing Weeds | Herbs and Oils Hub
[…] Mallow: Eat Your Healing Weeds […]
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Sahar
Yes and sorry for the mistake, this appetizer tasts much better with a sqweez of lemon.
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Sahar
You are most welcome dear Kami…. It’s my pleasure.
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Author
Kami
Reply to Sahar
HI Sahar, Also you said to add a little lemon to that recipe…..
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Sahar
oops, I forgot to mention the salt and peper, they should be added at the end.
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Sahar
Hi there, I am so happy to see this post about Mallow; we actually cook it very often in the Mediterranean Middle East… Easy appetizer and so delicious, not to mention the benefits we get from this herb… we sauté finely chopped onion in olive oil for five minutes, we add chopped Mallow, (it should be a big bunch of Mallow for they shrink with cooking), add finely grated garlic and chopped coriander. Cook for ten minutes, don’t cover the pan. We eat it cold with pita bread, we garnish the plate with well fried onions, and top it with… Read more »
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Author
Kami
Reply to Sahar
This sounds SO GOOD! Thank you for sharing these recipes! Thank you!
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Elena
Thank you, Kami! Do you know where I could buy some seeds? What about Malva Sylvestris, does it have the same properties or not? I buy organic greens from a vendor at our farmer’s market, but I have never seen malva sold there.
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Author
Kami
Reply to Elena
HI Elena,
We don’t have malva sylvestris here. It is edible and is perhaps the malva that grows where you live. Here is where you can get seeds:
https://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=566
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Ursula Noeker
Hi, I live in Germany, and it would be great if you could post the latin name of that plant. If I look up mallow in my online dictionary, I see various plants named mallow, and since I’m supposed to eat it, I’d like to know what I should eat. Remember, the Internet is international.
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Author
Kami
Reply to Ursula Noeker
Hi Ursula, Yes, common names can be SO confusing!
I put the Latin botanical name of mallow in the very top of the blog post, here it is:
Do you know this plant? Have you ever weeded it from your garden and thrown it away?
Well, those days are over. Meet Mallow, Malva neglecta to be exact. Mallow is the common name. Malva neglecta is the botanical name.
Malva neglecta
enjoy!
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lisa M
What a great post! I had no idea mallow was that useful! Thanks for writing this…..I’ll be looking for it this summer.
Thanks for linking up with Green Thumb Thursday last week! I’d love it if you’d stop by and link up again this week!
~Lisa
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Author
Kami
Reply to lisa M
Thanks Lisa!I know it is so amazing how something can grow all around and nobody told us how to use it! I love Green Thumb Thursday!~
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Debbie Mraz
Reply to Kami
Kami, Is it ok to dry the mallow leaves to use in the winter?
Debbie
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Author
Kami McBride
Reply to Debbie Mraz
YOu dont let the herbs dry on the plant. YOu harvest them when they are peak and then dry them. WHere i live, you can still get some really fresh good leaves, it all depends on the frost
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Anonymous
High Kami, this is very interesting that you like mallow. It has plagued my garden trying to take over everywhere with it’s long tap roots. Trying to pull it out with the long tap root requires digging. I knew some of the mallows were medicinal, but the mallow neglecta seemed like such an aggressive weed. I’ve heard before that when a medicinal plant comes in your garden like that, it is coming to help you with a problem you may have. If I start harvesting the leaves, it will probably lessen the amount that’s taking over and help me too… Read more »
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Author
Kami
Reply to Anonymous
HI Veronica,
I am so glad you can now eat your mallow and not be at war with it!
Enjoy
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