Paeonia californica
Paeonia californica | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Saxifragales |
Family: | Paeoniaceae |
Genus: | Paeonia |
Species: | P. californica
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Binomial name | |
Paeonia californica | |
Synonyms | |
P. brownii ssp. californica |
Paeonia californica is a
It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the other Paeonia species native to North America, Paeonia brownii.
Description
The California peony is most related to, and close in appearance to Brown's peony, with which it constitutes the section Onaepia. Common characters include having rather small drooping flowers, with small petals and a very prominent disk which usually consists of separate segments, while the seeds are cylindrical rather than ovoid. It can still be easily distinguished from P. browniii however by 35–75 cm high stems bearing seven to twelve leaves which are green, while the leaflet blade gradually eases into the leaflet stalk or lacks such a stalk all together, and the finest lobes are lanceolate or narrowly elliptic. P. brownii is only 20–40 cm high, has six to eight glaucous leaves per stem that suddenly narrow at their base and the finest segments are egg-shaped. In P. californica the petals are egg-shaped, and about 1½-2½ cm long, reaching beyond the sepals, while in P. brownii the petals are circular or wider than long, and about ¾-1½ cm long, definitely shorter than the sepals.[2]
Taxonomy
Paeonia californica was first described in 1838 by
P. brownii and P. californica together make up the section Onaepia of the genus Paeonia. Precise relationships between the three sections remain ambiguous, and can be represented by the following phylogenetic tree.[4][5]
genus Paeonia |
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Distribution
California peonies have a native distribution in southwestern California (Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties) and in neighboring Mexico (northern Baja California), although distribution in Mexico is poorly known.[6] It grows on dry hillsides in the coastal sage scrub and chaparral communities of the coastal mountains of Southern and Central California, often as an understory plant between sea level and 1500 m elevation.[1]
Cultivation
The California peony has entered limited cultivation in
References
- ^ a b "Paeonia californica". efloras – Flora of North America. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
- ^ a b Stebbins, G. Ledyard Jr. (1938). "The Western American species of Paeonia". Madroño. 4: 252–260. cited on "The Western American species of Paeonia". Paeon. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
- ^ "Paeonia californica". The Plantlist. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
- ^ Sang, Tao (1996). Phylogeny and Biogeography of Paeonia (PAEONIACEAE), dissertation. The Ohio State University. cited on "Tao Sang, DISSERTATION, chapter 4". Paeon. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- PMID 9335140.
- ^ "Paeonia californica Nutt". Calflora. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
- ^ Ben Wilson. "Paeonia californica". Las Pilitas Nursery. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
- ^ "Californian peony". CNPS. Retrieved 2016-06-12.