About Paeonia caucasica (Schipcz.) Schipcz.
Paeonia daurica is a perennial herbaceous photosynthetic plant that emerges above ground in spring and dies back underground in autumn. It has slender, carrot-shaped roots that grow downward. Leaves are arranged alternately along stems, with an overall size of 5–11.5 × 8–17 cm. Lower leaves are usually made up of three groups of three undivided, or sometimes two-lobed, leaflets, and occasionally undergo a third division resulting in a maximum of nineteen leaflets. Leaflets range from wide to narrowly oval, with their widest point at mid-length or closer to the tip. Leaflet bases are roughly wedge-shaped, or sometimes rounded; margins are entire and occasionally wavy, and tips are rounded or end in a small or larger sharp point. The upper leaf surface is hairless, while undersides are hairless, or covered from sparse to dense with felty hairs. Hermaphrodite flowers form individually at stem tips, and are subtended by zero to two leafy bracts. Each flower has two or three green sepals, five to eight petals that may be white, pale yellow, yellow, yellow with a red basal blotch or a reddish margin, pink, red, or purple-red, and many stamens. Stamens have pale, yellow, pink or purple filaments topped with anthers that hold yellow pollen. At the very center of each flower are one to five carpels, which are hairless or covered from sparse to dense with felty hairs, and bear almost directly attached stigmas that are mostly curved or S-shaped when viewed from above. Paeonia daurica occurs scattered across the Balkans (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, northern Greece), Crimea, the Caucasus (Dagestan and Krasnodar Krai in Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan), the Kaçkar Mountains (Turkey), the Alborz Mountains (northern Iran), the Talysh Mountains (west of Guilan province, south of the Caspian Sea), and Lebanon. The nominate subspecies P. daurica subsp. daurica is widespread, does not share a range with other subspecies of P. daurica, and is not found in the Velebit, Caucasus or Alborz mountains. P. daurica subsp. coriifolia grows at elevations below 1000 m in the west and northwest of the Caucasus, where it inhabits deciduous forests dominated by oak, beech, elm, maple and ash, or mixed fir, oak and beech forests, growing on limestone, sandstone and volcanic rocks. P. daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii is only known from eastern Georgia, northwestern Azerbaijan and adjacent Russia, where it grows in deciduous forests of oak, beech, elm, maple and chestnut. P. daurica subsp. wittmanniana occurs in northwestern Georgia and the upper reaches of the Mzymta River in adjacent Russia, growing in deciduous forests, as well as subalpine and alpine meadows between 1000 and 2300 m, only on limestone. P. daurica subsp. macrophylla is restricted to the mountains of southwestern Georgia and northeastern Turkey, growing at elevations from 1200 to 2200 m, though it has been recorded as low as 800 m. It can be found in deciduous or mixed forests and in glades, with no apparent preference for any soil type. P. daurica subsp. tomentosa occurs in the Talysh and Alborz Mountains in southeastern Azerbaijan and northern Iran, where it grows in deciduous forests and pastures on poor sandstone-derived soils at altitudes between 1100 and 1800 m. P. daurica subsp. velebitensis grows only at elevations between 900 and 1200 m in the Velebit Mountains (Dinaric Alps) of Croatia. Paeonia daurica, which usually has hairless leaves, does not appear to be adapted to a typical Mediterranean climate, but instead to more humid summer conditions. The population on Mount Orjen grows in forests containing silver fir, European beech, Turkish hazel, the maples Acer pseudoplatanus and A. intermedium, and ash. This community also includes widespread species such as European spindle, mountain cherry, drooping bittercress, and Turk's cap lily, as well as endemics such as the Orjen iris. Several subspecies of P. daurica (daurica, coriifolia, tomentosa, macrophylla, mlokosewitschii and wittmanniana) are sold as seed or living plants, and are collected by specialist gardeners. These plants are reported to be hardy in western Europe and suitable for general garden conditions, with lowland taxa preferring more or less shaded sites. Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii has earned the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Because this subspecies' name is difficult to pronounce in English, it is often nicknamed 'Molly-the-Witch'. In Ukraine, P. daurica is a vulnerable red book species, and it is cultivated in the Yalta, Karadag and Cape Martyan nature reserves in Crimea. In the Crimean Tatar language, it is called patlaq çanaq, meaning 'broken cup'. This name refers to the petal shape, which resembles an elegant cup that was broken, with the pieces still held in place.
