(2010)  Page(s) 122.  
 
Paeonia sterniana....is closely related to P. emodi. They share a number of characters: the roots are carrot-shaped; sepals all or mostly caudate at the apex; leaflets mostly or all segmented; petals white; and plants entirely glabrous except for the carpels, which are mostly pubescent in P. emodi but glabrous in P. sterniana. Nevertheless, these two species distincly differ from each other. Paeonia emodi often has two or three flowers on a stem, whereas P. sterniana nearly always has a single flower (occasionally two) and sometimes one or two axillary sterile buds on a stem. The carpels are single (93%), rarely two (7%) per flower, and nearly always tomentose in P. emodi, whereas there are two to four, always glabrous carpels in P. sterniana...

(2010)  Page(s) 118-122.  Includes photo(s).
 
Hooker & Thomson (1875) described a form of Paeonia emodi with glabrous carpels as the variety glabrata.....pubescent or glabrous carpels reflect another example of polymorphism in carpel character for Paeonia emodi.
Paeonia emodi most resembles P. anomala, P. sterniana and P. lactiflora, but it deffers from all of these species in having the carpels mostly single (92.6%), rarely two (7.4%). In addition it differs from P. lactiflora in having leaf margin smooth (rather than cartilaginous thickened and dentate-spinose) and the carpels mostly tomentose....Paeonia emodi differs from P. anomala in having the leaflets/leaf segments no more than 30 in number (as opposed to 70 to 100), and from P. sterniana in having nearly always multiple flowers per stem (rather than nearly always solitary) and the carpels mostly tomentose (rather than glabrous)....

(2010)  Page(s) 193-197.  Includes photo(s).
 
Paeonia kesrouanensis (Thiébaut) Thiébaut, Fl. Lib.-Syr. (in Mém. Inst. Égypte, Cairo, 31): 37 (1936)....
Paeonia turcica P. H. Davis & Cullen, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 26: 176 (1965)....
Perennials. Roots carrot-shaped. Stems 35-80 cm tall, glabrous, green, sometimmes with purple spots or partially purple at the base, with 4-7 yellow-green scales at the base. Petioles and petiolules glabrous. Lower leaves biternate; leaflets/leaf segments 10-14, rarely up to 17 in number, ovate or elliptic, acute at the apex, 8-18 cm long, 4-7.5 cm wide, glabrous above, sparsely to rather densely villous beneath. Flowers solitary; involucrate bracts mostly one, rarely 2 in number, leaf-like, or absent; sepals 3-4, less frequently 2 or 5 in number, nearly orbicular, mostly or all rounded but sometimes one acute at the apex, green but often purple at the periphery, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely hirsute outside; petals 5-9 in number, pale pink, pink or red, 4.5-6.3 cm long, 2.5-4.2 cm wide, mostly entire, rarely incised; filaments dark purple; anthers yellow; disk 1 mm high, entire, rarely waved; carpels 1-3, rarely 4 or 5 in number, glabrous; styles 1.5-3.5 mm long, styles and straight part of stigmas together 3.5-7.0 mm long...
Flowering from late April to late May; fruiting from Late July to September...2n = 20...
Growing in Fagus orientalis, Pinus nigra or Cedrus libani forests or in Quercus scrubs in areas of limestones or metamorphic rocks at altitudes from 1,000 to 1,800 m. Confined to Lebanon, SW Syria, and SW and S Turkey...
...grows together with P. daurica in Mt Amanos in S Turkey, but we found no hybrids there. It differs frp P. daurica not only in morphology...but also in ploidy... P. kesrouanensis also grows together with P. mascula...where we did not find hybrids....
Paeonia turcica was described as new by David and Cullen (1965) due to its having styles and stigma that are shorter than those of P. kesrouanensis and curved near the base (rather than curved only at the apex in P. kesrouanensis). the length of style and stigma in P. turcica is, however, in the variation range of those in P. kesrouanensis....

(2010)  Page(s) 190-193.  Includes photo(s).
 
Paeonia mairei H. Lév., Bull. cad. Int. Géogr. Bot. 25: 42 (1915)....
Paeonia bifurcata Schipz., Bot Mater. Gerb. Glavn. Bot. Sada RSFSR 1(7) 3 (1920)...
Paeonia oxypetala Hand.-Mazz., Acad. Wissenschaften Wien 57: 265 (1920)...
Perennials up to 1 m tall. Roots tick, carrot-shaped. Caudex (rhizomes) c. 2 cm in diameter, up to 15 cm long. Stems single, simple, glabrous. Lower leaves biternate, with some leaflets segmented; leaflets/leaf segments 13-24, but mostly 14-17 in number, oblong-ovate or oblong-lanceolate, 6-16.5 cm long, 1.8-7 cm wide, glabrous, cuneate at the base, usually acuminate or even caudate at the apex. Flowers solitary, terminal; involucrate bracts 1-3 in number, leaf-like or linear; sepals 3-5 in number, green, broadly ovate, all rounded or sometimes one caudate at the apex, 1-1.5 cm long, 0.9-1.2 cm wide; petals 7-9 in number, pink to red, obovate, 3.5-7 cm long, 2-4.5 cm wide, usually rounded at the apex; filaments purple-red; anthers yellow; disk yellow, annular c. 1 mm high; carpels 2-3, rarely 1 in number, sparsely to densely yellow papillate to hispidulous, sometimes glabrous; styles up to 4 mm long; stigmas red, 1.2-1.5 mm wide. Follicles 3-3.5 cm long, 1-1.2 cm in diameter. Seeds black, oblong-spherical, 7-8 mm long, 4-5 mm in diameter....
Flowering in April and may; fruiting from August to September....2n = 20...Growing in deciduous broad-leaved forests at an altitude of 1,200-3,400 m, on limestones. In Chingqing, SE Gansu, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, C & S Sichuan, and NE Yunnan; endemic to China...
Paeonia mairei is a very distinct species with no close realtives evident. It is characterised by caudate-acuminate or acuminate leaflets/leaf segments, conspicious styles, single stems, and plants that are alwaays entirely glabrous except for the carpels. The presence of indumentum on the carpels is unique in the whole genus...

(2010)  Page(s) 31.  
 
We often found P. obovata and P. mairei plants with single stems...

(2010)  Page(s) 188-189.  
 
Paeonia mascula subsp. russoi (Biv.) Cullen & Heywood, Feddes Report, 69: 35 (1964), pro parte....
Paeonia flavescens C. Presl. Delic. prag. 1: 5 (1822), pro parte, excl. syn. P. cretica....

(2010)  Page(s) 31.  
 
We often found P. obovata and P. mairei plants with single stems...

(2010)  Page(s) 137-148.  Includes photo(s).
 
Paeonia obovata....Hong et al., 2001 have explained clearly why Paeonia japonica and the other taxa were treated in synonmy. Makino (1898: 302) did not designate type for his new variety, var. japonica, se we designated Miyabe and Takeda's figure as neotype. ...

(2010)  Page(s) 148-149.  
 
Paeonia obovata Maxim. subsp. willmottiae (Stapf) D. Y. Hong & K. Y. Pan.... ....Flowering in May; fruiting in August and September....In contrast to the teypical subspecies, the leaves are mostly densely or very denselyhirsute or pubescent on the lower surface.

(2010)  Page(s) 235.  
 
Paeonia officinalis subsp. huthii Soldano, Att. Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. Museo Civ. Stor. Nat. Milano 133 /10): 114 (1993)....Paeonia villosa Desf. Tabl. école bot., 126 (1804), Paeonia peregrina Mill. var. villosa Huth, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 14: 270 (1891), pro parte, excl. syn tartarica. Paeonia humilis Retz. var. villosa (Huth) Stern, J. Roy. Hort. Soc. 68: 129 (1943)....
Paeonia peregrina Mill. var. compacta G. Anderson, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 12:279 (1818)