Musk Mallow

I’m sure you know musk sticks. The florally sweet pink stick lollies? While their flavour is largely developed synthetically now, the original musk flavour (and perfume) came from musk deer (let’s not go into the details). BUT, another natural source of musk flavour and scent is from the musk mallow! Being a common name, ‘musk mallow’ refers to a couple of different plants, though they are all fairly closely related and come from the Malvaceae or mallow family - the same family as hibiscus and cotton.

The musk mallow I want to talk about today is Ablemoschus moschatus ssp. tuberosus (that’s a name an half!). I’ve also heard it called native rosella (not the one you make jam from) or native okra. This particular subspecies is native to the northern parts of Australia and often found in open rocky grasslands where it sprawls across the ground and reaches maybe half 30-40 cm high. Like the name (tuberosus) suggests, it forms underground tubers, which help it to hibernate over winter and re-emerge in the summer rains. They also self seed fairly readily - I suspect most of the ones in my garden come from seeds rather than overwintered tubers.

Early morning the flower is just starting to open.

Like most hibiscus plants, the flowers only last a day, but they flower profusely so it doesn’t matter. The flowers are a bright watermelon red, with a cream coloured center. The whole plant is edible - the young leaves and shoots can be eaten raw or cooked (personally they’re a bit hairy and slimey for my taste!), the tubers are a source of starch and the pods can be cooked like okra (I haven’t tried this yet). And, referring back to my earlier statement, the dried seeds are musky when crushed and can be used to flavour sweets or chewed directly.

Musk mallow thrives in warmth and full sun and is pretty tolerant of poor soils. Despite liking excellent drainage it does better with a bit of water - similar to its natural habitat in the tropics where it would get rains over summer. I planted my first plant a few years ago and it has popped up close by every year since.

By the middle of the day the flower is fully open.