Paeonia sterniana
| Paeonia sterniana | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Core eudicots |
| Order: | Saxifragales |
| Family: | Paeoniaceae |
| Genus: | Paeonia |
| Species: | P. sterniana |
| Binomial name | |
|
Paeonia sterniana H.R.Fletcher |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
P. emodi subsp. sterniana |
|
P. emodi subsp. sterniana
Paeonia sterniana is a perennial, herbaceous peony of approximately 45 cm high in cultivation, with white or sometimes pinkish flowers. It grows in the wild in southeastern Tibet. This peony is very rare in cultivation. It produces blue seeds in autumn. Its common name in Chinese is 白花芍药 (bai hua shao yao), which means "white peony".
Paeonia sterniana is a hairless perennial herbaceous plant of up to 90 cm high, with leaves alternately set along the stems, which flowers in it home range in May, while the seeds are ripe as off September. It is a diploid nothospecies with ten chromosomes (2n=10), that results from hybridisation between P. lactiflora and P. mairei.
It has thick tapering roots, that are reminiscent of carrots and are up to 30 cm long and 1½ cm thick. The lower leaves consist of three sets of three or more leaflets, those in the middle with three main segments and each one incised, while the side leaflets have two uneaqual segments. The leaflets are dark green above and glaucous beneath, linear-oblong or lanceolate in shape, 5–12 cm long and 1-2½ cm wide, with a base that gradually narrows into the leaflet stalk segments, lobed or with an entire margin and a pointy tip. The number of segments and lobes may be between twenty and forty.
The flowers occur with one together at the end of the stem, are 8–10 cm in diameter, although sometimes aborted flower buds may be found in the axil of highest leaves. Each flower is subtended by three or four uneaqual leaflet-like bracts. Each flower has three, rarely four roundish sepals of 2-2½ × 1½-2 cm, more or less extending into a narrow tip. The white or pale pink petals have an inverted egg-shape and are about 3½ × 2 cm. Both the filaments and anthers are yellow. There is very short yellow disk which encloses the base of two to four green and hairless carpels, which are topped by white styles capped by red to purple stigmas. The carpels later develop into ovoid fruits called follicle of 2½-3 cm long and about 1 cm wide. Mature seeds are indigo-blue while the inside of the follicles is bright red.
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Wikipedia