Marsh Mallow

It's such a pretty plant, that cutting it down, drying the root, and grinding it up, would seem like a desecration, but there is one really overriding reason for such vandalism – marshmallows! Unless you've tasted real marshmallows, made the traditional way, with powdered marshmallow root, egg whites, cane sugar, and vanilla extract, you have no idea what you are missing.

Cultivation

This pretty flowering plant copes with almost any soil and situation, though it prefers a rich moist soil in a sunny position – its natural habitat is river banks and damp areas, especially salt marshes. It can also tolerate fairly dry soil conditions as long as it is not so dry it wilts.

Parts Used

The leaves, which are collected in summer as the plant begins to flower, have demulcent, expectorant, diuretic, and emollient properties. The root, which is harvested in late autumn, has demulcent, diuretic, and emollient properties. The root extract (called halawa) was traditionally used to make halva. Grind your dried roots in a coffee grinder and use them in traditional sweet making recipes to impress your friends, but remember this is a diuretic so too many sweeties can have you running to the loo all night!

Uses

Eaten as food, it coats mucous membranes and absorbs toxins, it is often used externally with cayenne to treat blood poisoning, burns, and gangrene. For muscular pain, you can apply the softened root to the area, or add a strained decoction of the root to a foot bath. For first aid purposes any wild mallow flower is excellent for compress for wasp stings and as a poultice it has the ability to draw out poisons and debris from a wound or applied as a compress it can reduce inflammation of the eyelid. Prepare a strong tea – from the leaves steeped in water - as a rinse for an abscess or boil. For mastitis or problems with breast feeding place 5-10 drops of mallow tincture in a cup of hot water, wet a cloth and apply the warm compress to the breast.

Marsh Mallow photograph by bc anna from flickr under a creative commons attribution licence.