Malvacea is a biennial or perennial erect herb with a plant height of about 50-90 cm, many branches and sparse coarse hairs. The hollyhock is a biennial erect herb, the plant is much higher than the mallow, up to 2 meters high, the stems and branches are densely covered with bristles.
Compared with the mallow, the leaves of the mallow are bigger, and the petioles of the mallow are much longer.
The leaves of Mallow have no hairs on both sides or are only sparsely covered with short rough hairs on the veins, while the mallow has hairs on both sides, sparsely covered with stellate villi on the top, rough, and stellate setae or villi on the bottom.
Mallow stipule apex acuminate; hollyhock stipule apex with 3 points.
The flowers of Mallow are small and monotonous, generally purple and pink; the flowers of hollyhock are large and rich in various colors, including white, red, pink and yellow. The florescence of hollyhock is from June to August, and that of mallow is from May to October.
