Turk’s cap mallow – malvaviscus arboreus – is a perennial shrub in the hibiscus family native to the Southeast United States and Central America. Other common names for it are wax mallow, sleepy mallow, cardinal’s hat and Scotsman’s purse. Okra and cotton plants are also in the malaviscus family.
The 2-and-a-half inch red flower looks like it is getting ready to fully open but never really does, with its petals remaining furled with a hibiscus-looking stamen rising from inside. The berries are a food source for birds and humans. Mexicans call them manzanillas, which means “little apples,” because they taste similar to apples.
The Turk’s cap mallow in my yard on the Isle of Palms has been there for so long that I don’t remember when it started over 20 years ago.
One variety of it is named for Thomas Drummond – 1790- 1835 – who arrived in Texas from Scotland in the 1830s and collected 750 species of native plants that were distributed among the museums and scientific institutions of the world.
As a child, I remember a very wide 2- to 3-foot tall Turk’s cap mallow bush right under our kitchen window at Sleepy Hollow, our Sullivan’s Island family beach house on I’On Avenue. This plant always seemed to have hummingbirds and yellow sulfur butterflies on it. It took care of itself with no help from us. We just called it the “hummingbird bush.” It is also the host food plant for the white skipper butterfly.
It likes rather dry sandy soil and can thrive in sun or shade. In fact, my plant has an offspring that came up under the live oaks in the shaded part of the yard, and that one is doing well. I have seen them for sale at Abide A While. Just like most natives and wildflowers, it doesn’t like to be transplanted once it’s established but can be grown from seed or even rooted from a branch or shoot. Like most native plants, it doesn’t like frequent watering.
Every winter, it dies back like the lantanas and other native perennials. I cut it back to the ground at the end of winter, and in spring it comes up bushy and new.
Some consider Turk’s cap mallow to be an essential part of a butterfly/hummingbird garden along with lantana, coneflower and other plants for pollinators.
