Mallows in the garden...

[Jessiebean]

We have what appears o be a plague of mallows in our garden. I hear tell that the Common Tree Mallow is good for ladybirds, we will have plenty of lady birds if this is the case, these Tree Mallows are evrywhere!
I am also constantly digging out what I think are Malva Parviflora(sp?) but I was wondering if they are good for anything apart from vigorously infesting the garden?

[Millymollymandy]

I just had to google those two, the first is Lavatera which is really pretty so that's good in it's own right. The mallow, I don't know that one exactly but we have wild mallows here (think they are Malva Sylvestris) and I consider what they are good for is flowering in the wild/chicken runs and looking pretty in a wild situation - and being able to grow and flower in drought like conditions and probably attract bees too. However they get dug out of veg patch and flower beds cos they are basically weeds there!

[Jessiebean]

I suspected as much- I would be interested to know if the Mallow I have growing in the garden is the one that can be used for making marshmallows but I can't confirm which it is from the google images I have found and of course it isn't flowering here. I do think it is the small flowered mallow but I also know that m. sylvestris is found here as well. Seems we have many of the same weeds MMM and similar weather, our tourism department certainly loves to push the "similar climate to the south of France" aspect and the "amazing array of Victorian architechture" so there you go. Climate like the south of France with British Architecture. That's why I live in the middle of the top of the bottom of nowhere. and have lots of marshmallows growing. Also clover, wild amaranth chickweed, alkanet and various others I have yet to identify....

[Millymollymandy]

I've had to google because I have two different kinds of Malva flowering in the chicken run! The other one is Malva Alcea with very pretty filigree like leaves - it's looking very pretty in the runs at the moment and there's a couple of poppies out today too. In the other run (I divided it into two) are a load of wild raspberries gone mad and I noticed they were ripening up, so put the chooks in there today and they are having fun jumping up trying to grab them.

I do know that my gardening magazine talked about wild mallows (the Malva ones) and the benefits of leaving wild places for them to grow, but for what reason exactly I don't remember. Bees maybe?

Have a look at the Wiki entry because it mentions young malva leaves being used as a substitute for lettuce, though you might need to do a bit more research as it didn't specify which ones. I won't rush out and try them as I've got a glut of lettuce right now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malva