Musk mallow (Malva moschata) with its conspicuous pink flowers and attractive deeply cut leaves is widespread throughout the British Isles, but is rarely abundant in any one place. Thus it might be expected to have a large number of local names, but in fact only three alternative names have been recorded. Two these – jagged mallow and vervain mallow – appear to be ‘book’ names which probably never strayed far from the printed page. The third, buttons, recorded from Somerset, could be a misidentification; perhaps common mallow (Malva sylvestris) was intended. One wonders how widely the name musk mallow was used by country dwellers who had no great interest in plants; perhaps they simply referred to it as ‘that pretty pink flower’.
Any local names for musk mallow, or any comments, would be appreciated.
[adapted from R. Vickery, Garlands, Conkers & Mother-die, 2010: 108].

Comments: 

1. In September 2023 members of Wild Flowers of Britain & Ireland Facebook Group were asked if any of them knew of any local names for musk mallow; no one did.

2. In October 2024 members of the Group were asked again if they knew of any local or folk names for musk mallow; again no one did, but Struan Gray kindly contributed an interesting note:

”’Cat-cheese” is used for many Malvas and Althæas in the Nordic languages.  I’m not sure why ”cat” is used to imply common rather than the more normal ”dog”.  It’s an old name, but I don’t know if it spread to the UK with the Vikings.                                                                                                 Desman or Desme was common as a prefix for musk-scented plants (moschatel [Adoxa moschatellina] is Desmekopp for example), and Musk Mallow is called Desmeros or Desmanros in older (C17th-C18th) floras.  Desme- became regarded as a sign of common or low speech as Swedish was standardised from the C18th onwards and was looked down on by systematising botanists, who preferred Mysk- or Bisam- as prefixes for scented plants. Musk mallow is now Myskmalva.                                          Malva is not unusual as a girl’s name in Scandinavia, but that’s a recent phenomenon (80s-ish onwards).                                                                   Swedish has only two other ”cat” plants. Kattfot (”cat-foot”, Mountain Everlasting [Antennaria dioica]) and Kattmynta (”cat mint” [catnip, Nepeta cataria]); both are a lot more obvious connections.’

3. In June 2025 members of British Wildflowers Facebook Group were asked if any of them knew of names for musk mallow, but no one did so.

Image: Wandle Meadow Nature Park, London Borough of Merton; June 2014.

Last updated 4 July 2025.