  |
|
|
|
For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former times desolate and waste. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.--Job 30:3-4
These flowers--which include hollyhock, hibiscus, and malva plus the less well-known abelmoschus, callirhoe, lavatera, and sidalcea--are, indeed, an extravagant present. Although most are big and beautiful, they have easy-going temperaments. The majority of mallows are found in tropical climates, but the ones that do survive here in Zone 5 have proven quite adaptable. They self-sow prolifically, and can become a nuisance. Shakespeare, in fact, mentions mallows in the same breath with such weeds as nettles and docks. Their flattish, disc-shaped seed pods are commonly called "cheeses." The wild marshmallow is the ancestor of the hollyhocks. Its roots are, as Culpeper put it, "full of a slimy juice, which, being laid in water, will thicken, as if it were jelly." In the early 19th century, French and German candymakers whipped, sweetened, and molded that sap to create the familiar confections named for the plant. There is, of course, no real marshmallow root in marshmallows these days. Gelatin has replaced it. But the plant has more to offer than candy. The ancient Romans and Egyptians boiled, fried, and ate the roots as vegetables. (Culpeper recommends cooking them with parsley or fennel roots.) Uncooked, they were the teething rings of olden days, since they soothed a baby's gums as he gnawed. Marshmallow also relieves colds, ulcers, and kidneystones, as well as soothing all kinds of inflammations. In the Language of Flowers, mallow stands for the "mildness" which is one of the clan's biggest assets. The family name, Malvaceae, derives from "malake" or "soft." Althea comes from the Greek "altho," which means "to cure." Because they are "good" plants, mallows are also supposed to repel witches and break up the "wicked gatherings that be engendered in a man's body." Hollyhock actually derives from "holi" ("holy") and "hoc" ("mallow"), and stands for "ambition" or "fecundity." It may, in fact, have been brought to Europe from the Holy Land, as so many flowers were, after the Crusades. Any daring souls who want to tread hot coals might be well advised to paint their soles first with a mixture of egg white and mallow sap. It's supposed to protect the skin from fire! Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Mellow Mallows in Historical Plants is owned by . Permission to republish Mellow Mallows in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
