The old recipies actually used the root of the mallow plant I understand. Here's a link showing some varieties of how they look. http://agpest.co.nz/?pesttypes=mallows

I came upon mallow plants out in the country in the central valley of California. People thought they were just weeds. Roxann and I would add the leaves to our salads. Although we never actually made marsh mallows from them.

The way that marsh mallows aren't made from the mallow plant much any more is similar to Licorice.

Licorice, the candy is seldom made from the licorice plant anymore. The licorice plant has some medicinal properties as an adaptogen if I recall correctly.

Thanks for sharing the Marshmallow recipie Lilly.