They have compound, deeply lobed leaves and large, often fragrant flowers, in colors ranging from purple and pink to red, white or yellow, in late spring and early summer.

Herbaceous peonies are also sold as cut flowers on a large scale, although they generally are only available in late spring and early summer.

In the woody species the new growth emerges from scaly buds on the previous flush or from the crown of the rootstock.

In P. emodi, P. lactiflora, P. veitchii and many of the cultivars these contributed to, few additional flowers develop in the axils of the leaves.

Each of these develops into a dry fruit (which is called a follicle), which opens with a lengthwise suture and each of which contains one or a few large fleshy seeds.

The annual growth is predetermined: if the growing tip of a shoot is removed, no new buds will develop that season.

These include monoterpenoid glucosides, flavonoids, tannins, stilbenoids, triterpenoids, steroids, paeonols, and phenols.

Known diploid taxa in the Paeonia-section are P. anomala, P. lactiflora, P. veitchii, P. tenuifolia, P. emodi, P. broteri, P. cambedessedesii, P. clusii, P. rhodia, P. daurica subsps.

Tetraploid taxa are P. arietina, P. officinalis, P. parnassica, P. banatica, P. russi, P. peregrina, P. coriacea, P. mascula subsps.

P. emodi and P. sterniana are diploid hybrids of P. lactiflora and P. veitchii too, and radically different in appearance.

P. peregrina is the tetraploid hybrid of P. anomala and either P. arietina, P. humilis, P. officinalis, P. parnassica or less likely P. tenuifolia, or one of their (now extinct) common ancestors.

[19][20] Peridiscaceae Paeonia Altingiaceae Hamamelidaceae Cercidiphyllum Daphniphyllum core Saxifragales all Eurasian herbaceous peonies all other tree peonies P. ludlowii P. delavayi P. brownii P. californica The genus Paeonia naturally occurs in the temperate and cold areas of the Northern Hemisphere.

The section Onaepia consist of two herbaceous species and is present in the West of North-America, P. brownii between southern British Columbia and the Sierra Nevada in California and eastward to Wyoming and Utah, while P. californica is limited to the coastal mountains of Southern and Central California.

The section Paeonia, which comprises all other herbaceous species, occurs in a band stretching roughly from Morocco and Spain to Japan.

Paeonia emodi occurs in the western Himalayas between Pakistan and western Nepal, P. sterniana is an endemic of southeastern Tibet, P. veitchii grows in Central China (Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan and the eastern rim of Tibet), like P. mairei (Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan), while P. obovata grows in warm-temperate to cold China, including Manchuria, Korea, Japan, Far Eastern Russia (Primorsky Krai) and on Sakhalin, and P. lactiflora occurs in Northern China, including Manchuria, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Far East and Siberia).

The large distance between the ranges of the parent species and the nothospecies suggest that hybridisation already occurred relatively long ago.

It is likely that the parent species occurred in the same region when the hybrids arose, and were later exterminated by successive Pleistocene glaciations, while the nothospecies remained in refugia to the South of Europe.

Ornamental cultivars were created from plants cultivated for medicine in China as of the sixth and seventh century.

Here, breeders like Victor Lemoine and François Félix Crousse selected many new varieties, mainly with P. lactiflora, such as "Avant Garde" and "Le Printemps".

Unique growing conditions due to long hours of sunlight create availability from Alaska when other sources have completed harvest.

[23] The presence of ants is thought to provide some deterrence to other harmful insects though, so the production of ant-attracting nectar is plausibly a functional adaptation.

Along with the plum blossom, it is a traditional floral symbol of China, where the Paeonia suffruticosa is called 牡丹 (mǔdān).

[41] The Greek doctor Dioscorides named aglaophotis, an herb supposedly capable of warding off certain evils, as a member of the peony family.

[42] In the Middle Ages, peonies were often painted with their ripe seed-capsules, since it was the seeds, not the flowers, which were medically significant.

[43] Ancient superstition dictated that great care be taken not to be seen by a woodpecker while picking the plant's fruit, or the bird might peck out one's eyes.

[46] Mischievous nymphs were said to hide in the petals of the peony, giving it the meaning of Shame or Bashfulness in the Language of Flowers.

The popular use of peonies in Japanese tattoo was inspired by the ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi's illustrations of Suikoden, a classical Chinese novel.

His paintings of warrior-heroes covered in pictorial tattoos included lions, tigers, dragons, koi fish, and peonies, among other symbols.

Paeonia officinalis can be found in the altar picture of Maria im Rosenhag by Schongauer in the former Dominican Church in Colmar.

The Italian Jesuit, painter and architect Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), who worked at the court of the Qianlong Emperor in the Qing dynasty, also painted peonies.