Creeping mallow (Modiola caroliniana)
Creeping Mallow, known as Red Flowered Mallow, is a rhizomatous, low growing biennial or perennial weed, and is a problem in turf, lawns and gardens.
It is up to 25 cm in height, and the leaves have a cover of star shaped and/or simple hairs.
After you read this, you will be able to:
- Recognise Creeping Mallow or Red Flowered Mallow.
- Know the habitat of Red Flowered Mallow.
- Know the best cultural and chemical options to control Creeping Mallow.
Creeping Mallow is a soil indicator of low soil Ca and wet, compact soils with poor drainage. It also indicates high K, Fe, Al, and very high Mg.
More on turf weeds is in our weed ID chart.
The distribution map is courtesy of The Atlas of Living Australia.
Creeping Mallow causes nerve disorders in sheep, cattle and goats (staggers).
How to identify Creeping Mallow.
Category: Broadleaf (Dicot)
Flowers: Creeping Mallow has single orange-red or red flowers, that have 5 petals and are on stalks. Creeping Mallow flowers from November to February.
Leaf length: The leaves have an egg shape, and are 3 to 4 cm long.
Leaf width: The leaves are 2 to 3 cm wide.
Stems: Red Flowered Mallow has prostrate, creeping stems that root at the nodes.
Reproduction: Creeping Mallow reproduces from seed, and produces up to 5,000 seeds per plant. Seeds normally disperse by water or soil.
Comments: The leaves are kidney-shaped, round or shaped like a triangle with 3 to 7 toothed lobes.
Habitat: This weed is common in gardens, lawns, and playing fields, and also occurs in aquatic areas and disturbed vegetation.
How to control Creeping Mallow.
Cultural control of Creeping Mallow.
A good strategy is to maintain a thick, healthy turf cover.
- Make sure that you feed the turf and use the right turf fertilizer. This creates a thick turf cover that discourages this weed.
- Mow at the right height as this helps favour turf over this weed.
- Grass selection also plays an important role with controlling Red Flowered Mallow. Choose the wrong turf seed or turf type for your situation, and you quickly end up with a weedy lawn that is difficult to manage.
If you intend to remove this weed by hand do this before it produces any seed in the early Summer. Be aware that if the root system of Creeping Mallow remains in the soil, it will regrow even if you use a pre-emergent.
Chemical Control of Creeping Mallow.
Pre-emergents for Creeping Mallow.
Pre-emergents like Specticle or granular pre-emergents like Onset 10GR have no knockdown activity, and do not work on older mallow plants. They do however, give good control of Mallow that grows from seed.
Selective herbicides for Creeping Mallow.
Total knockdown herbicides.
Herbicides such as Glufosinate Ammonium do give some control of Creeping Mallow, but only brown off the top. This has no effect on the existing root system which is unaffected. As a result, Creeping Mallow regenerates sometimes in the same year depending on when the herbicide was applied.
You can spot treat with Proforce RapidFire (800g/L Glyphosate) as this moves to the roots. You need a very high rate, plus a spray adjuvant like OptiSpread 1000 to be effective. (This depends on growth stage of the plant).
When you use ProForce RapidFire 800 to control Creeping Mallow, you get the best results when you treat the weed when it is small and newly emerged.
Other non-selective options are Numchuk Quad or Cortex Duo. Numchuk Quad kills all existing weeds, and then prevents them for up to 12 months. This is ideal for pavers, courtyards, driveways and fencelines.
ProForce Cortex Duo Industrial Herbicide is a non glyphosate weed killer. It is both a non-selective knockdown & a residual herbicide that lasts up to 3 months. It also controls algae and moss, and is safe around trees and ornamentals.
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In Conclusion
The key to the control of Creeping Mallow is to maintain a healthy turf surface.
