Mallows

Mallows is a term with several related meanings. In botany, mallows refers to herbaceous plants in the family Malvaceae, particularly those in the genus Malva. The common mallow Malva sylvestris is among the best known species. Mallows typically have rounded, lobed leaves and clusters of soft pink to white flowers. They are native to temperate regions of the Old World and have been cultivated and naturalized in many areas. Various species have been used for edible greens, thickeners, or traditional remedies in different cultures.

Mallows is also a surname of English origin. The name may derive from a place where mallows grew or from a landscape feature associated with the plant. It appears in historical records and has several regional spellings. As a surname, Mallows has been carried by numerous families and individuals across English-speaking countries.

In statistics, Mallows appears in two well-known concepts: Mallows distance and Mallows’ Cp. Mallows distance is a measure of dissimilarity between probability distributions, used in goodness-of-fit assessments and probability theory. Mallows’ Cp is a model selection criterion used in regression analysis to balance model fit and complexity, aiding in the choice of predictor subsets. Both concepts are named after a statistician with the surname Mallows and are standard tools in statistical theory and data analysis.

Related terms include the singular form mallow, which more commonly denotes the plant species, and should not be conflated with the plural Mallows.