41. Malvaceae

It is impossible to argue with the economic importance of the Malva family, which among other things brought us cotton and chocolate. For crying out loud -- where would any of us be without cotton or chocolate? Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, is one of the top cash crops of the U.S. South, California's Central Valley and probably many other regions of the world. Chocolate, Theobroma cacao, is simply the food of the gods, as the words "Theo broma" translate to in Greek. Above, the blogger is seen holding a cocoa pod at a boutique chocolatier in Belize. Chocolate used to belong to its own family, Sterculiaceae, but that family, along with Bombacaceae, got swallowed up by the Malvaceae to create a mega-family.

There are other familiar products: okra - Abelmoschus esculentus; balsa wood -- Ochroma pyramidale; and Hibiscus, to name a few. Ornamental flowers such as hollyhock also belong to the Malva or Mallow family, as it is sometimes called. Seen below is danish black hollyhock, a variety of common hollyhock -- Alcea rosa. I consider hollyhocks to be both beautiful and humorous, especially when they get very tall. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, the tallest hollyhock was 19 feet 7 inches. Their average mature height is between 6 and 10 feet.

This is a large family containing many species that span the spectrum from cash crops to invasive weeds and everything in between. Among the delightful native California species I have encountered are Lavatera assurgentiflora, originating from the Channel Islands but now growing all over the mainland with its pretty pink flowers; and flannelbush, Fremontodenron californicum, seen below at the UC Santa Cruz arboretum and prized as an attractive, drought-resistant landscaping shrub.

By far the most commonly encountered mallow is Malva neglecta, sometimes called cheeseweed. It is one of the most invasive weeds in the United States, filling up vacant lots coast to coast with shameless abandon. I would venture to say that most people have seen it without even realizing it.

One day I made an extraordinary discovery behind a strip mall in the Salinas Valley: a long row of fabulously weird trees of Australian origin, Brachychiton populneus, commonly known as bottle trees, but also called lacebark kurrajong, a fabulously weird name that somehow fits the strangeness of the flowers and pods seen below. Apparently these trees are used as wind breaks here in CA.

My encounters with notable malvas doesn't stop there. I should mention that when I listed the 76 plant families featured in this blog along with notable representatives from each, there were more species of Malvaceae than any other family. Among the ones I have not mentioned are: baobob trees -- Adansonia, famously featured in the book "The Little Prince"; silk floss trees -- Ceiba speciosa, another tropical beauty; the Confederate rose -- Hibiscus mutabilis, a flower of the South that changes from white to red throughout the course of the day; and the money tree -- Pachira aquatica, a popular houseplant, cultivated in the tropics for its nuts.