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Paeonia californica
California peony is a summer-dormant perennial native to dry hillsides of southern California and northern Baja California, grown in native plant and xeriscape gardens. The key to growing it is keeping the summer-dormant swollen root dry, since watering then causes rot.
Paeonia californica is a perennial herbaceous plant of 35–70 cm (14–28 in) high, that retreats underground in summer, and reoccurs with the arrival of the winter rains. It has lobed leaves, elliptic (cup-shaped) drooping flowers with dark maroon-colored petals, and many yellow anthers. It flowers mostly from January to March (or sometimes as early as December or as late as May), and later develops two to five fruits per flower. Its common name is California peony and it is sometimes also referred to as wild peony. This peony is an endemic of southwestern California (USA), where it is not rare, and northernmost Baja California (Mexico). It grows on dry hillsides in the coastal sage scrub and chaparral communities of the coastal mountains of Southern and Central California, often as an understory plant.
The California peony has entered limited cultivation in native plant landscaping and xeriscaping. It is drought-tolerant and is moisture sensitive in the summer, when its swollen root will rot if watered. It prefers partial sun and tolerates a variety of soil types. Deer seem to avoid eating this plant.
California peonies have a native distribution in southwestern California (Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties) and in neighboring Mexico (northern Baja California), although distribution in Mexico is poorly known. It grows on dry hillsides in the coastal sage scrub and chaparral communities of the coastal mountains of Southern and Central California, often as an understory plant between sea level and 1,500 m (4,900 ft) elevation.
Anomalous Peony · Paeonia cambessedesii · Paeonia corsica · Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii · Tree Peony · Dian mu dan · Himalayan Peony · Chinese peony · Paeonia ludlowii · Peony · Chinese Peony · Common peony
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Paeonia californica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
