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. Lateral leaflets often entire, terminal leaflets usually shallowly 3-lobed, often reddish above; petals often with a red basal blotch: 2. P. qiui

2. Paeonia qiui Y. L. Pei & D. Y. Hong, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 33 (1): 91, fig. 1 (1995). Typus: China, Hubei, Shennongjia, Songbai....P. ridleyi Z. L. Dai & T. Hong, Bull. Bot. Res. (Harbin) 17 (1): 1, fig. 1 (1997); P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea (Rehder) Haw & Lauener var. qiui J. J. Halda, Acta Mus. Richnov., Sect. Nat., 4 (2): 31 (1997)...... A small shrub to about 80 cm tall. Leaves bitemate, leaflets 9, reddish-purple above, ovate to almost circular, lateral leaflets often unlobed, terminal leaflets usually trilobed. Flowers single, rather small (c. 10 cm diam.), petals pink or rose, often with a red basal blotch, disc dark reddish-purple......Hubei (Shennongjia mountain, region) and Henan (Xi Xia).

Book  (Jan 1999)  Page(s) 23.  
 
Paeonia qiui is similar to P. jishanensis except for some differences in the leaves