矮牡丹 ai mu dan

Paeonia spontanea (Rehder) T. Hong & W. Z. Zhao, nom. illeg. (included P. jishanensis); P. suffruticosa Andrews var. jishanensis (T. Hong & W. Z. Zhao) Halda; P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea (Rehder) S. G. Haw & Lauener; P. suffruticosa var. spontanea Rehder.

Shrubs to 1.8 m tall. Roots attenuate toward tip. Turions present. Stems gray or gray-brown. Proximal leaves 2-ternate; leaflets ovate-orbicular to orbicular, 4--6 × 3.5--4.5 cm, villous along veins or throughout, deeply 3-lobed; lobes again lobed, acute to rounded at apex. Flowers solitary, terminal, single, 10--16 cm wide. Bracts 2 or 3, long elliptic, unequal. Sepals 4 or 5, green, broadly ovate, 2.5--5 × 1.8--2.5 cm, apex rounded. Petals 5--11, white, occasionally pinkish at base or margin, obovate, 4.5--7.2 × 4--6 cm, apex irregularly incised. Filaments pink or purple, white distally, 8--10 mm; anthers yellow, linear, 8--11 mm. Disc wholly enveloping carpels, red-purple, leathery, apex dentate. Carpels 5, densely tomentose. Stigmas red. Follicles oblong, densely brown-yellow tomentose. Fl. Apr--May, fr. Aug. 2n = 10*.

* Secondary deciduous broad-leaved forests, well-developed thickets, sometimes cultivated; 900--1700 m. N Henan (Jiyuan Xian), C Shaanxi (Huayin Xian, Tongchuan Shi), SW Shanxi (Jishan Xian, Yongji Xian).

Hybrids between this species and Paeonia rockii, naturalized in Platycladus orientalis forests in Shaanxi (Yan’an Shi), were treated as P. ´ papaveracea Andrews (Bot. Repos. 7: t. 463. 1807; P. suffruticosa var. papaveracea (Andrews) Kerner; P. yananensis T. Hong & M. R. Li) by Hong and Pan (Nordic J. Bot. 19: 297. 1999), who believed them to have originated from wild individuals of P. jishanensis and cultivated P. rockii .