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Paeonia obovata
Also called Woodland Peony
Paeonia obovata is a hardy perennial herbaceous peony from woodlands across northeast Asia, growing 30–70 cm tall and dying back to buds below ground each autumn. Grow it in a cool, partly shaded woodland-style spot with moist, well-drained soil.
Paeonia obovata is a perennial herbaceous species of peony growing 30–70 cm high. It has white, pink or purple-red flowers and its lower leaves consist of no more than nine leaflets or segments. In English it is sometimes called woodland peony. It grows naturally in warm-temperate to cold China, including Manchuria, and in Korea, Japan, Far Eastern Russia (Primorsky Krai) and on Sakhalin.
The typical subspecies of P. obovata grows in forests ranging from deciduous broad-leaved to coniferous forests and may be found at an altitude of 200–2800 m. In China it occurs naturally in Anhui, southeastern Gansu, northern Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, southeastern and western Henan, western Hubei, northwestern Hunan, northern Jiangxi, eastern Jilin, Liaoning, southeastern Inner Mongolia, southern Ningxia, eastern Qinghai, southern Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan and northwestern Zhejiang. It also grows in Korea, Far East Russia (Amur Oblast, Primorsky Krai, Sakhalin, Shikotan) and Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu). The ssp. willmottiae is confined to deciduous forests at altitudes between 800 and 2800 m in the neighborhood of the Qinling Range in China.
The roots of P. obovata (along with P. lactiflora) are used in traditional Chinese medicine as a painkiller, tranquilliser and anti-inflammatory drug, and as a cure against cardiovascular disease and bleeding. It contains specific monoterpene glucosides. The indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido used this plant, called horap or orap, as a painkiller.
Anomalous Peony · California peony · Paeonia cambessedesii · Paeonia corsica · Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii · Tree Peony · Dian mu dan · Himalayan Peony · Chinese peony · Paeonia ludlowii · Peony · Common peony
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Paeonia obovata 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.
