Leaves are split into three sets of leaflets, themselves further divided into twenty three to forty eight, 2½–4½ cm wide, ovate to lanceolate (subspecies rhodia) or to ninety five lanceolate to linear, ½–3¼ cm wide, segments (in the typical subspecies).

[1] The flowers are set individually at the tip of the stems, and are subtended by one or two bracts that look like small segmented leaves.

[1][5] Subspecies rhodia is characterised by twenty three to forty eight, ovate to lanceolate leaf segments, each between 2½ and 4½ cm wide.

Another specimen, now from Crete, was described as P. cretica in 1828 by Tausch, but at that moment the name was no longer available, and hence invalid.

[1][6] Paeonia clusii was named in honor of the Dutch botanist Carolus Clusius, who was the first to write about a white flowered peony from Crete, already in 1601.

Subspecies rhodia occurs as undergrowth of pines at an elevation of 350–850 m.[1] Rhodes' peony likes well-drained, loamy soil or compost.