The vernacular name in Chinese is 大花黄牡丹 (da hua huang mu dan) meaning "big yellow-flowered peony".

[2] It has pure yellow, slightly nodding, bowl-shaped flowers, and large, twice compounded, light green leaves.

The pure yellow, inverted egg-shaped petals are spreading but slightly curved inwards, 5-5.5 × 2.5-3.5 cm and have a rounded tip.

The yellow disk at the base of the carpels is ring-shaped, bears teeth, and stands about 1 mm in height.

These dehisce in August to reveal large, dark brown, globose seeds measuring 1.3 cm in diameter.

P. ludlowii on the other hand can only reproduce by seed and lacks creeping underground stems, has slender, regular roots, while the stems form a clump, grows to 2-3.5 m high, has leaves with short and abruptly pointed lobes, petals, stamens, disk and stigmas are always yellow, only one or very rarely two carpels develop but this grows into a much larger follicle (4.7-7 × 2-3.3 cm) which always develops seeds.

[7] In 1886 P. delavayi with maroon-red and P. lutea with yellow flowers, both from Northwest Yunnan, were described respectively by Franchet and Delavay, on the same page of the same scientific article.

[6] all Eurasian herbaceous peonies all other tree peonies P. ludlowii P. delavayi P. brownii P. californica The species was named in his honor Frank Ludlow who collected seed of Paeonia ludlowii in the Tsangpo Valley (upper Brahmaputra River) in 1936, after which it became for the first time known to western science, on his expedition with Major George Sherriff in South-East Tibet.

[3] Paeonia ludlowii is an endemic that is restricted to the Nyingchi, Mainling and Lhünzê counties of South-East Tibet.

[5] Paeonia ludlowii is sometimes grown as an ornamental for its delicate foliage and beautiful (although short-lived) flowers.

[3] When growing the species from seed, these can best first be soaked, mixed with damp vermiculite, and kept at room temperature until root emerges after one to three months.

When these are planted into separate pots immediately and grown in daylight results are generally good.

[12] The shrub is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental for the sake of its handsome, yellow flowers and ferny foliage in botanical gardens and by plant collectors.