What does the latest peony look like? Let us show you its morphological characteristics
The peony is also known as shugu, lujiu, bairong, woody herbaceous peony, baiyujin, Luoyang flower, fugui flower, etc. It is a perennial deciduous small shrub of the genus Paeonia in the family Paeoniaceae. Its flowers are brilliantly colored, jade-like in beauty and pearl-like in fragrance, elegant and unrestrained, magnificent and splendid, and it has long enjoyed the reputation of “king of flowers.” Among cultivated types, it can be divided into more than a hundred varieties mainly according to flower color. It is widely cultivated in China and has long been introduced to various parts of the world, and related cultural and painting works are very rich.
The peony stem reaches up to 2 m tall, with short and thick branches. The leaves are usually bipinnately trifoliolate compound leaves, occasionally the leaves near the branch tip have 3 leaflets; the terminal leaflet is broadly ovate, 7-8 cm long and 5.5-7 cm wide, 3-lobed to the middle, the lobes unlobed or 2-3 shallowly lobed, green and hairless on the surface, pale green on the underside, sometimes with a white bloom, sparsely short-pilose or nearly hairless along the veins, the petiolule 1.2-3 cm long; the lateral leaflets are narrowly ovate or oblong-ovate, 4.5-6.5 cm long and 2.5-4 cm wide, unequally 2-lobed to 3-shallowly lobed or unlobed, nearly sessile; the petiole is 5-11 cm long and, together with the leaf rachis, is hairless.
The peony flower is solitary at the branch tip, 10-17 cm in diameter, the pedicel 4-6 cm long, the bracts 5, oblong, unequal in size, the sepals 5, green, broadly ovate, unequal in size, the petals 5, or double, rose-colored, red-purple, pink to white, usually highly variable, obovate, 5-8 cm long and 4.2-6 cm wide, the apex irregularly wavy, the stamens 1-1.7 cm long, the filaments purple-red or pink, white in the upper part, about 1.3 cm long, the anthers oblong, 4 mm long, the disc leathery, cup-shaped, purple-red, with several sharp teeth or lobes at the apex, completely enclosing the carpels, splitting when the carpels mature, the carpels 5, rarely more, densely pubescent. The follicles are oblong, densely covered with yellow-brown stiff hairs. The flowering period is May, and the fruiting period is June.
The peony prefers a warm, cool, dry, and sunny environment. It likes sunlight and also tolerates partial shade, tolerates cold, tolerates drought, tolerates weak alkalinity, dislikes waterlogging, fears heat, and fears direct scorching sun. It is suitable for growing in loose, deep, fertile, high and dry, well-drained neutral sandy loam, and grows poorly in acidic or heavy clay soil. Sufficient sunlight is relatively favorable for its growth, but it does not tolerate exposed scorching sun in summer, and temperatures above 25°C will cause the plant to enter a dormant state.
China is especially rich in peony resources. According to a survey by the special team staff of the Office for China's Competition to Select the National Flower, peonies are cultivated in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Fujian, Anhui, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Hainan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, China, and other places, roughly divided into several types such as wild species, semi-wild species, and horticultural cultivated species. The largest and most concentrated peony cultivation areas in China include Heze, Luoyang, Pengzhou, Beijing, Linxia, Tongling County, and others.
The peony is a specialty flower native to China, with thousands of years of natural growth and more than two thousand years of artificial cultivation history. Its flowers are large, beautifully shaped, brightly colored, and strongly fragrant, praised by people of all dynasties, and it has high ornamental and medicinal value. Since it was recorded as a medicinal plant in the Shennong Bencao Jing during the Qin and Han dynasties, writings about it have appeared scattered in various ancient books of successive dynasties. Peony culture is compatible with many sciences, and its composition is very broad, including philosophy, religion, literature, art, education, customs, folkways, and all cultural fields.