Malacothamnus abbottii is a rare species of flowering plant in the mallow family known by the common name Abbott's bushmallow.

It was historically known from a single specimen collection and the plant was presumed extinct until it was rediscovered in 1990 near San Ardo in the Salinas River drainage.

[3] It is now known from eleven occurrences, many of which are actually part of a single population, growing in vulnerable riverbeds near oil fields.

It is coated in thin white hairs and bears toothed oval leaves a few centimeters long, sometimes divided into lobes.

The inflorescence is a cluster of a few pale pink flowers with pointed oval petals 6 or 7 millimeters long.