Seashore Mallow

 I’ve been seeing this plant everywhere (well, everywhere wet and wild anyway).  I always stop to look because it looks so  much like a hibiscus.  After seeing it enough times, in marshes and such, I started wondering if this is the marsh mallow.  As it turns out, that’s pretty close to right.  It’s actually the seashore or salt marsh mallow (Kosteletzkya virginica).  I find that interesting, because I’ve seen it in a freshwater marsh and in what is probably* a marshy area around a cypress/palm swamp.

So it is a mallow, which puts it in the mallow family, Malvaceae, along with hibiscus and cacao trees.

Now is the time to go looking if you want to see these in the wild.  They’re native to states along the eastern US and the Gulf of Mexico.  If you’re in central Florida, you can find them at Emeralda Marsh and at Lake Jesup Wilderness Area.

*It was on the drier side when I was there, but had signs of being wetter on occasion – it has been a few dry years