Three Lobe False Mallow
Malvastrum coromandelianum
Found in Coastal hammocks, disturbed areas; eastwards a waif on ballast or wool waste. FloraQuest, phone app (app page) What its natural habitat tells you
Not native to Florida. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 18%
- Soil moisture
- Somewhat dry to average
No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Light · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 13 Florida counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Who uses this plant?
14CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including FL
Genus host records with ranges including FL · Malvastrum
- Anicla infectaGreen Cutworm Moth
- Anomis editrixGulf Scalloped Moth
- Anomis erosaYellow Scallop Moth, Mallow Caterpillar
- Bagisara repandaCommon Sida Tumbler, Wavy Lined Mallow Moth
- Burnsius communisCommon Checkered-Skipper
- Burnsius oileusTropical Checkered-Skipper
- Diphthera festivaHieroglyphic Moth
- Hypena minualisMallow Snout
- Spragueia jaguaralisCounfounding Spragueia
- Strymon limeniaDisguised Scrub-Hairstreak, Disguised Hairstreak
Show all 14
- Synchlora frondariaSouthern Emerald
- Tarache tetragonaFour-Spot Bird-Dropping Moth
- Mimophobetron pyropsalis
- Spragueia margana
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
1BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Malvastrum
- Columbina passerinaCommon Ground Dove
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
Plant details
- Family
- Malvaceae
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| Florida rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| FL status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- Atlas of Florida Plants
- NatureServe Explorer
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications