Article (magazine)  (2001)  
 
The recognition of P. jishanensis T. Hong & W. Z. Zhao as a distinct species seems to me to be correct. There is, however, a problem regarding the name of this taxon. When Hong and Zhao published this name in Hong, T. et al. (1992: 225 - 226, 232).... they went on to say: "On the basis of specimen no. 338 collected by W. Purdom in 1910, 50 li west of Yan'an, A. Rehder, the American taxonomist of woody plants, published a new variety of tree peony (i.e. P. suffruticosa Andrews var. spontanea Rehd.). The original Latin diagnosis of this variety described the flowers as pink, sometimes with petaloid stamens (Journal of the Arnold Arboretuni 1: 193, 1920). In 1990, the British scientists S.G. Haw & L. A. Lauener raised A. Rehder's variety to a subspecies, P. suffruticosa Andrews subsp. spontanea (Rehd.) Haw & Lauener, and included the wild tree peony with white flowers from Majiagou, Ji Shan, Shanxi province in this subspecies. The authors' opinion is that P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea has petaloid stamens, which are an important characteristic developed after domestication of a wild tree peony, so that therefore P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea should be reduced to the status of a cultivar, 'Spontanea'.".....This, however, is an error. There is no reason at all why a cultivated plant cannot be the type specimen of a taxon. The type of this taxon must be Purdom 338. The name P. jishanensis, typified by Hong Tao 915010, is, therefore, superfluous and illegitimate.

Article (magazine)  (2001)  
 
KEY TO SPECIES
1. Flowers solitary, erect; disc leathery, sheathing the carpels to at least half their length (Section Moutan DC.): 2
2. Carpels 5(-7), tomentose, more or less entirely sheathed by the disc; leaves biternate or 2-3-pinnate, leaflets 9-33: 3
3. Small shrubs to not more than c. 1.2 m tall; leaves more or less biternate, leaflets usually 9, sometimes 11-15, ovate to suborbicular; flowers comparatively small, c. 10 cm in diameter: 4
4. Leaflets deeply 3-lobed and toothed, green above; petals unblotched: 1. P. spontanea

Article (magazine)  (2001)  
 
Paeonia spontanea (Rehder) T. Hong & W. Z. Zhao, Bull. Bot. Res. (Harbin) 14 (3): 238 (1994). Typus: China, Shaanxi, "50 Ii W of Yenan..., 1910, Purdom 338...P. suffruticosa var. spontanea Rehder, Journ. Arnold Arb. 1: 193 (1920), p.p. excl. specim. Taipeishan (Mt. Taibai), Purdom s.n.; Stern, Stud. Gen. Paeonia 43 (1946); K. Y. Pan, Fl. Reip. Pop. Sin. 27: 45 (1979); P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea (Rehder) Haw & Lauener, Edinb. Journ. Bot. 47 (3): 278, fig. It (1990); P. jishanensis T. Hong & W. Z. Zhao, Bull. Bot. Res. (Harbin) 12 (3): 225, fig. 2 (1992), nom. illegit.; P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea (Rehder) Haw & Lauener var. jishanensis (T. Hong & W. Z. Zhao) J. J. Halda, Acta Mus. Richnov., Sect. Nat., 4 (2): 30 (1997).

A small shrub to about 1.2 m tall. Leaves usually with 9 leaflets or sometimes 11-15, ovate or broadly ovate to almost circular, usually rather bluntly lobed. Flowers single, rather small (c. 10 cm diam.), purplish to pink or white, unblotched, disc dark reddish purple....Shanxi and northern and central Shanxi.

Book  (Jan 2000)  Page(s) 49.  
 
The four species described by Hong and his associates are as follows:
....Paeonia jishanensis Hong and Zhao
Named for the district in Shaanxi Province where it was found, this is a smaller shrub, 4 feet in height, with somewhat ovate and lobed leaflets. The ten-petaled flowers are white and sometimes slightly pink at the base. The filaments, disc, and style are purplish red. Diploid (10 chromosomes).

Book  (Jan 2000)  Page(s) 47-48.  
 
Stern grouped the woody peonies, his section , into two subsections. The first, subsection Vaginatae, contained Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews and a variety spontanea Rehder.

Book  (Jan 1999)  Page(s) 19, 20.  
 
Page 19: Paeonia jishanensis first found by the British collector William Purdom in Shaanxi Province in 1910. Originally thought to be a variety of P. suffruticosa... [flowers] have ten white petals, sometimes shaded pink towards the base.
Page 20: Like P. jishanensis [Paeonia ostii] has purplish-red filaments, disc and style.

Article (magazine)  (Jan 1955)  Page(s) 13.  
 
Stern mentions a claim of discovery by a Doctor King in 1884 but thinks the plants may have been escapes from garden plants. In 1896, Paul Bruhl either found similar plants or reported on Doctor King's discovery. In 1910, Purdom found it. He sent a herbarium specimen to the Arnold Arboretum which Rehder, in 1920, named P. suffruticosa variety spontanea. He sent seeds to Veitch in England and to Professor Sargent. About fifty seeds of the latter shipment germinated, but the young plants were destroyed by rats. The Veitch Nursery raised a plant which they sent later to Professor Sargent. From this, a second herbarium specimen was made.