Plants are essential to everyone's lives. Welcome to Plantlife.
Rough mallow
(Malva setigera)
Rough or hairy mallow © Bob Gibbons/Plantlife
Also known as 'hairy mallow' due to the fine hairs that grow on its leaves and stem.
It is a low plant with large pink flowers on a rough stem, with rough rounded leaves lower down.
Distribution
It is now only reliably found at five or six sites in the warm southern counties of England.
Habitat
It grows in sunny open places such as field margins, tracks or sparse grassland on chalky soils.
Status
Protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Key threats
Its main threats are neglect, modern agricultural practices, and its inability to compete with new highly productive crop varieties.