English: Peonies.
Name: form the Greek, the God Pan.
Genera: Paeonia, ± 30 species, 33.
Region: Asia, Europe, Western North America.
Culture: Paeonia was a kingdom in the region of North Macedonia; Paeonia is an alternate name of Paeonidae, a demon of ancient Attica; Paeonia is an asteroid.
Content: paeoniflorin!; paeonol!; monoterpenoid glucosides, flavonoids, tannins, stilbenoids, triterpenoids, steroids, paeonols, phenols; ellagic acid, myricetin, ethereal oils, flavones, calcium oxalate; palmitone.
Culture: symbols of richness, healing, beauty, fulfilled love.
Use: ornamental.
BotanyHerbs perennial to deciduous shrubs; 40 to 100 cm, up to 3 m high; sensitive to root disturbance.
Roots: thick storage roots; thin roots for gathering water and minerals.
Leaves: compound, deeply lobed; large; deciduous; without glands and stipules; with anomocytic stomata.
Inflorescence: single flowers at the end of stems.
Flowers: showy; bisexual; fragrant; large, to 14 cm in diameter; purple red to white or yellow; subtended by a number of bracts, forming an involucre; flowering late spring and early summer.
Sepals: 3 to 7; tough; free.
Petals: 5 to 8, up to 13; free.
Stamens: numerous, 50 to 160; free; anthers sagittate, fixed at their base, open with longitudal slits at the outer side.
Pollen: free grains; 3 slits or pores; consist of two cells.
Carpels: 3, 1 to 15; lobed disc, without nectar; separate; very short style; decurrent stigma.
Fruit: dry, follicle; opens with a lengthwise suture; with one to many large fleshy seeds.
TaxonomyPaeoniaceae were formerly placed in
Ranunculaceae, with an assumed connection to Glacidium. Later on
Paeoniaceae were placed under the
Dilleniidae. In the
Apg3 classification it is placed in
Saxifragales.
Plant theoryIn the
Plant theory Paeoniaceae are in
Subphase 5 of the
Saxifragales. In the first version they were placed in
Subphase 1. But the full blooded quality of haemorrhoids and varicose veins fits better
Phase 5.
CladesClades: Moutan, Onaepia, Paeoniae.
Onaepia: North America, P. brownii, P. californicum.
Moutan: Delavayanae, Vaginatae.
Delavayanae: P. delavayi, P. ludlowii.
Vaginatae: P. catayana, P. decomposita, P. jishanensis, P. osti, P. qiui and P. rockii
P. suffruticosa is a cultivated hybrid swarm.