Plant Story--Glorious Purple Poppy Mallow, Callirhoë involucrata

wine cups, purple poppy mallow, Callirhoe involucrata

I call them wine cups, because it is an easy name to remember. They are also called purple poppy mallow, crimson-flowered poppy mallow, buffalo rose, and prairie poppy mallow. Purple poppy mallow seems to be the preferred common name, so I'll use it here.

There are nine species of Callirhoë, poppy mallows, all native to North America (all in the United States, one species with a Mexican variety), making them North American endemics. Looking at the USDA's map (link), most are found in the south central U.S. Purple poppy mallows can be found in states from the east coast (Florida, Virginia) to west coast (Oregon) but probably because they were cultivated and escaped.


Purple poppy mallow's scientific name is Callirhoë involucrata, and it is a member of the hibiscus and hollyhock family, Malvaceae. Callirhoe was a Greek nymph. The name kallir-rhoos means "beautiful flowering." There were three different Callirhoes in Greek mythology: daughter of the river god Achelous (link); daughter of Oceanus, god of the sea (link); daughter of the River god Scamander, living in a fountain in the city of Troy (link). There does not seem to be a direct link between any of these and the North American flower, just a pretty name for a pretty flower. I believe the letter ë means the e should be pronounced: hear it spoken at Missouri Plant Finder: link)

Purple poppy mallows have handsome, deeply divided leaves.

And sprawl, spreading over the ground. They routinely reach out of the flowerbed onto the paths. But they're easy to cut back.

The flowers open in full sun, close at night. They attract bees, butterflies and other insects.

It is one of the food plants of the butterflies gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus, Lycaenidae) (link), common checkered skipper (Pyrgus communis, Hesperiidae ) (link) and likely the white-checked skipper (Pyrgus albescens) (link), which means growing purple poppy mallows can support these butterflies.

Purple poppy mallows start flowering in June and, especially if kept from developing seeds by removing spent flowers, will flower all summer. I like to cut off the old flowers because my plants set seed and they are deeply-enough rooted to be difficult to weed out of places I do not want them. Preventing seeds eases that problem as well as prolonging flowering.

Purple poppy mallow in a spot where I don't want it

They are quite drought-tolerant but in the heat and drought of Colorado midsummer will often slow growth and wait for moister conditions before growing more. In a garden, they may look kind of battered and unhealthy during that period. Then, with water and/or cooler temperatures, they perk up and grow vigorously again.

Purple poppy mallow is edible. Kindsher reported that it was gathered and eaten the Osages and that several expeditions into the plains in the 1800s wrote that it was edible. Samuel Thayer praised them highly, giving instructions for gathering and preparing the roots. He noted that the rest of the plant is edible as well. Thayer wrote "A brief acquaintance with this robust root vegetable makes one wonder why it is not one of our best-known native foods." (Incredible Wild Edibles p. 300).

Purple poppy mallow's big root

Purple poppy mallows were used medicinally by the Dakota. They drank a decoction of the roots for pain and bathed aches in the smoke of the dried roots. Smoke from the roots was inhaled to treat a head cold.

When asked about it, the Kiowa reported they liked the flower for its beauty.

I recommend them as grand garden plants, but also hope you'll stumble on them in the wild:

Purple poppy mallows, Callirhoë involucrata, at Nine-Mile Prairie,
Lincoln NE

Comments and corrections welcome.

References (in addition to the links within the text above)
Kindscher, K. 1987. Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.
Moerman,  D. 2003. Native American Ethnobotany Database. Online at BRIT link
Thayer, S. 2017. Incredible Wild Edibles. Forager's Harvest Press, Bruce, WI.

Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist

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