Alcea rosea 'Nigra'

Alcea rosea L., Malvaceae. Hollyhock. First called holyoke by Turner (1548). Cultivar 'Nigra' refers to its dark red coloured flowers. Distribution: Southwest China, but now a world-wide garden plant. Early medicinal uses are difficult to find as it was confused with mallow (Malva, Lavatera), Marsh Mallow (Althea), hibiscus (Hibiscus), and abutilon (Abutilon) but Parkinson (1640) says the leaves of Hollihocke were, at one time, eaten, raw or boiled, as a purgative. Bentley (1861) says that it is used, like Malva, to make marsh-mallows that a blue dye is obtained from the leaves, and ropes can be made from the fibres of the outer part of the stem. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.