What are the characteristics of the peony flower? The latest interpretation is here
The peony is a deciduous shrub of the genus Paeonia in the family Ranunculaceae, a traditional famous flower native to China, also known as woody peony, Luoyang flower, deer leek, etc. Its flowers are large and highly variable, brilliantly colored and magnificent, and it is known as the “king of flowers”. The peony flower is valued as national beauty and heavenly fragrance, with aristocratic character, and its nobility is self-evident and universally known. Peonies are also not easy to grow, especially when propagated by planting, which is troublesome and has a relatively low survival rate. What characteristics does such a precious peony flower have? I think everyone is looking forward to knowing, so below we introduce the characteristics of the peony flower.
Characteristics of the peony flower's morphological features
The peony is a deciduous small shrub plant, so its plant form is small. This plant grows slowly, with plant height mostly between 0.5 and 2 m; the roots are fleshy, thick and long, with a lignified center, generally 0.5 to 0.8 m in length, and in very few cases the root length can reach 2 m; the color of the root bark and root flesh varies by variety; the branches are upright and brittle, round, and form a shrub shape from several branches clustered at the rhizome. Current-year branches are smooth, herbaceous, yellowish brown, and often split and peel; the leaves are alternate, and the leaf blades are usually bipinnately trifoliolate, while the upper part of the branch often has simple leaves. The leaflets have shapes such as lanceolate, ovate, and elliptical, and the terminal leaflet is often 2- to 3-lobed. The upper surface of the leaf is dark green or yellow-green, and the lower surface is grayish green, smooth or hairy; the common petiole is 8 to 20 cm long, with grooves on the surface.
The peony flower is borne singly at the top of the current-year branch and is a bisexual flower. The flowers are large, brightly colored, beautiful and varied in form, with a flower diameter of 10 to 30 cm. The colors of the peony flower include ten major colors: white, yellow, pink, red, purplish red, purple, dark purple, snow blue, green, and bicolor; the stamens and pistils often show petalody, and so-called petalody refers to the phenomenon in which, under the influence of some special environmental condition, complex changes occur, causing the stigma and filaments to become longer and wider and take on a petal-like form. The natural increase in petals and the degree of petalody of the stamens and pistils are related to variety, cultivation environmental conditions, growth years, and so on.
A normal peony flower has many stamens, strong seed-setting ability, and relatively high seed maturity. Flowers with severe pistil petalody set few and empty seeds or no seeds. In a complete flower, the stamens are free, and there are generally 5 carpels, rarely 8, each with a bottle-shaped ovary of one locule, marginal placentation, and many ovules. The follicle is five-angled, and each fruit angle sets 7 to 13 seeds. The seeds are roughly round, yellow when mature, and turn dark brown when old. Mature seeds are 0.6 to 0.9 cm in diameter, with a 1000-seed weight of about 400 grams.
Characteristics of the peony flower's growth habits
The peony flower is a plant that very much likes a warm, dry environment with relatively sufficient sunlight. However, as a national flower, the peony is also very strong in cold resistance and drought resistance. But what the editor is talking about is only drought resistance. Strong direct sunlight is very bad for the peony flower. Another point is that during its growth process, the soil for the peony flower must not hold too much water. For it, a loose, deep, and fertile soil is the best environment for its growth. Relatively speaking, the high temperature and highly humid weather of the south are not very good for the growth of the peony flower, and beautiful peony flowers can only be enjoyed under specific conditions.
Characteristics of the peony flower's uses
Everyone is surely very familiar with its ornamental uses, so the editor here will focus on introducing its characteristics in food and medicinal use. In many places there is the custom of using peony petals in various color-matched dishes. At the same time, peony flowers can also be used to steam wine, and the taste is very fragrant. Not only that, using peony bark as medicine can also achieve effects such as clearing heat and cooling blood and relieving pain in medicine, but pregnant women still need to use it with caution.