What Is This Beautiful Pink Flower

Ask the Expert: What is the name of this flower?

I’m trying to figure out what the name is of this beautiful pink flower. Katie

Plant Expert Reply:

Katie,

The flower is from the family of Malvaceae sometimes commonly known as the Mallow family. This family includes many genuses such as Alcea (hollyhock), Gossypium (cotton), Hibiscus, Malva (musk mallow), Lavatera trimestris (rose mallow), Callirhoe (poppy mallow) to name a few. In this case, I am not exactly sure which genus it belongs to. At first, based on the leaf I thought it was a type of Malva, but the bloom it looks more like a Callirhoe. So I did a little research and I think it is a type of rose mallow (Lavatera trimestris).

Hopefully one of the blog readers will have a better identification for us.