Tree mallow
A coastal biennial that grows into a substantial soft-wooded shrub in a single season, carrying large purple-veined pink flowers from June to October. Its huge open flowers offer abundant sticky pollen and it grows on sea cliffs and seabird islands where almost nothing else will.
Value to bees
- Nectar
- High
- Pollen
- Very high
- As a honey crop
- Not a honey source
- Which bees, and why
- Mallow pollen grains are unusually large and spiny and stick to bees conspicuously — a bee leaving a mallow flower is visibly dusted. The downy stems also attract wool carder bees, which scrape the hairs to line their nests.
Very large open flowers with a projecting staminal column — no access difficulty at all.
- Worth knowing
- A generous nectar source and an outstanding pollen source, with unusually large sticky pollen grains.
Flowering
- In flower
- June to October (northern hemisphere)
A long summer to autumn season in its second year.
Growing it
- Conditions
- Full sun with free drainage, and exceptional tolerance of salt spray and poor stony ground.
- Size
- 1.5-3 m tall in its second year.
- Native range
- Coastal western and southern Europe and the Mediterranean, on sea cliffs, shingle and seabird islands.
- Suits
- Small gardens, Large gardens, Containers and window boxes
- Biennial: leaves in year one, flowers in year two, then it dies. Let it self-seed to keep it going.
- Exceptionally salt-tolerant and one of the best plants for an exposed coastal garden.
- Short-lived and fast — a seedling in spring is a two-metre shrub by the following summer.
What it looks like
A tall soft-stemmed biennial with large downy lobed leaves and big pale purple-pink flowers with dark veining radiating from a deep purple centre.
Sources
- Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
- HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides covering this plant
- Pollen plants explainedPollen is protein and it is what bee larvae are made of. A garden with abundant nectar and no pollen supports adult bees and produces no new ones.
- How to make a garden genuinely useful to beesMost bee-friendly advice covers flowers in June, which is the one thing bees are least short of. The gaps are at the ends of the year — and half the problem is not flowers at all.
- Long-flowering plants for beesA plant in flower for five months does the work of three plants in flower for six weeks, and removes the timing problem that defeats most bee planting. These are the ones that keep going.
Tools for planning planting
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?