Alcea "Alcea" species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including "Bucculatrix quadrigemina" and "Vanessa cardui", the painted lady. The mallow flea beetle ("Podagrica fuscicornis") is a pest that makes tiny holes in the leaves. Cutworms, aphids, and capsid bugs use the plant as a food source in hotter and drier conditions. A number of weevils use "A. rosea" as their host plant, including "Rhopalapion longirostre", "Alocentron curvirostre", and "Aspidapion validum". The plants are also susceptible to the pathogenic fungus "Puccinia malvacearum", the hollyhock rust. A hollyhock flower, known in Japan as , was incorporated into
Rhodiola rosea and 4 petals, yellow to greenish yellow in color sometimes tipped with red, about long, and blooming in summer. Several shoots growing from the same thick root may reach in height. "R. rosea" is dioecious – having separate female and male plants. "Rhodiola rosea" was first described by Pedanius Dioscorides in De Materia Medica. Western North American plants formerly included in "R. rosea" are now treated as "Rhodiola integrifolia" and "Rhodiola rhodantha". About 140 chemical compounds are in the subterranean portions of "R. rosea". "Rhodiola" roots contain phenols, rosavin, rosin, rosarin, organic acids, terpenoids, phenolic acids and their derivatives, flavonoids,