凤丹 feng dan

Paeonia ostii var. lishizhenii B. A. Shen; P. ostii subsp. lishizhenii (B. A. Shen) B. A. Shen; P. suffruticosa Andrews subsp. ostii (T. Hong & J. X. Zhang) Halda.

Shrubs to 1.5 m tall. Stems brown-gray. Proximal leaves 2-pinnate, with 11--15 leaflets; leaflets lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, mostly entire, often terminal ones 2- or 3-lobed, very occasionally 1 or 2 lateral ones also 2-lobed, 5--12 × 2.5--5 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base rounded, apex acute. Flowers solitary, terminal, single, 12--14 cm wide. Bracts 1--4, green, leaflike. Sepals 3 or 4, green-yellow, broadly elliptic or ovate-orbicular, 1.5--3.1 × 1.5--2.5 cm, apex acute or shortly caudate. Petals ca. 11, white, obovate, 5.5--6.5 × 3.8--5 cm, apex emarginate. Filaments purple-red; anthers yellow. Disc wholly enveloping carpels, purple-red, leathery, apex dentate or lobed. Carpels 5, densely tomentose. Stigmas red. Follicles oblong, densely brown-yellow tomentose. Fl. Apr--May, fr. Aug. 2n = 10*.

* Deciduous broad-leaved forests, thickets on slopes, usually cultivated; 800--1600 m. Native in W Henan (Lushi Xian); cultivated in Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and other provinces.

This species is widely but sporadically cultivated in China as a traditional medicine.