Texas Gardening: Texas Native Plant Pictures by color ( Other & Bicolor ), 1 by htop

htop wrote:
Cheeses, Common Mallow, Round-leaved Mallow, Running Mallow, Round Dock, Umbrella Mallow (Malva neglecta), Malvaceae Family, naturalized, annual (rarely biennial), blooms April or May through September, referred to as a weed by many

County distribution:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Texas&statefip...

Common mallow has a straight-taproot which is short. The hairy stems branch at the base and lay close to the soil surface, nearly erect or spreading with tips turned up. The 2 to 6 cm wide, alternate, circular to kidney-shaped leaves are blunt- to sharp-toothed and inconspicuously 5-9 lobed. The petioles are long. Short hairs are on both the upper and lower leaf surfaces, leaf margins and petioles. There are 2 stipules at bases of the leaves which are lanceolate and between 0.5 and 1 cm long. The seedling cotyledons are 5 to 7 mm long, 3 to 4 mm wide, heart-shaped, have 3 main veins and are hairy on both surfaces.

From May through September, the flowers appear singularly or in clusters of 2 to 4 in the leaf axils. The 5-lobed petals are white or white tinged with pale pink or purple. Common mallow produces flattened lengthwise fruit capsules which are round and cheese-shaped (disc- or button-like). They are composed of 12 to15 small hairy, 1-seeded, 5 to 8 mm in diameter wedge-shaped segments which are rounded on the back.

Common mallow is often misidentified as ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) which has square stems. Ground ivy leaves have more prominent rounded teeth and are opposite. Ground ivy often has a minty odor.

All parts of the plant are edible and it has many medicinal uses as do most weeds. See its entry in the PlantFiles which list these and gives other information.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/64513/

All photos of this plant presented here are courtesy of Forest and Kim Starr and taken in Maui, Hawaii where this plant is also natralized.

Blooms and leaves ... Composite of Photos (cropped and bordered by htop)