Paeonia corsica (Sieber) ex. Tausch

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Paeonia corsica, also known as the Corsican peony, is a perennial herbaceous plant of 35–80 cm (14–31 in) high that belongs to the peonies. It naturally occurs on Corsica, Sardinia, on the Ionian islands and in western Greece. It has hairless green to purple stems, and the lower leaves consist mostly of nine leaflets with undersides which may carry felty hairs or are hairless. Its flowers have pink petals and purple filaments. Its vernacular name in Italian is peonia Corsa, and in French pivoine de Corse, both meaning "Corsican peony".

Description

The Corsican peony is a diploid species (2n=10). It is a perennial herbaceous photosynthesising plant, which dies down in the autumn and reappears above the surface in spring. It flowers in April and May. Fruits may open from August onwards.

Root, stem and leaves

This peony has grey to brown roots shaped like carrots, about 2 cm (0.79 in) in diameter near the attachment of the stems and gradually becoming narrower towards their tips. It has stiff, erect, hairless, green to purple stems of 35–80 cm (14–31 in) high with five to seven scales at their base. The leaves have green to purple stalks which are hairless or carry soft hairs. The lower leaves further consist of three sets of mostly three rarely incised ovate to elliptic leaflets, each 4–13 cm (1.6–5.1 in) long and 2–8 cm (0.79–3.15 in) wide. These have a wedged to round base, an entire margin, a pointy tip, a hairless upper surface and a variously but mostly densely softly-hairy undersurface.

Flower, fruit and seed

Each stem may carry a single hermaphrodite flower that may be subtended by none or up to three leaflet-like bracts that may form a kind of involucre. The mostly two to five (occasionally as little as one or as much as eight) roundish sepals are unequal in size and vary in color from green to purple. These encircle seven or eight rose-colored inverted egg-shaped petals. Within are many stamens consisting of purple filaments and yellow anthers. A wavy disk of 1 mm (0.039 in) high with a toothed margin encircles the base of mostly two to five (rarely one or as much as eight) green, red or purple carpels. These are mostly covered in goldenbrown curving hairs of about 1½ mm (0.06 in) long, but sometimes hairless. The carpels are widest above midlength and 1½-3 mm (0.06-0.12 in) long styles on top connect them with the red stigmas. Seeds are black when ripe, round in diameter, and 7×5½ mm (0.22 × 0.28 in) in size. Seed development is quickened by warmth and arrested by cold. There is approximately a three-month delay between the initial development of the root and that of the earliest part of the stem (or hypocotyl). These responses to temperature make sure seedlings occur above ground at the most favorable time of the year.

Differences with related species

Paeonia cambessedesii currently in the wild limited to Majorca, also has pink flowers and mostly no more than nine leaflets per leaf and is a diploid. But it is entirely hairless, with the main veins and the underside of the leaves remaining purple throughout the season, the upperside greyish, and usually has four to eight carpels per flower, while P. corsica when fully developed has green leaflets, mostly hairy underneath, and two to five carpels per flower. Paeonia coriacea, restricted to Andalucia and Morocco, is a tetraploid, has magenta flowers, is entirely hairless, mostly has ten to fifteen roundish leaflets per leaf, and one or two hairless carpels per flower. P. corsica has pink flowers, ovate leaflets which are mostly hairy below, and one to five mostly softly hairy carpels per flower. Paeonia mascula, is known from northern Spain, France but not Corsica, through Italy including Sicily but excluding Sardinia, Greece excluding the Ionian isles and the adjoining mainland coast, and eastward to Lebanon and Iraq. It is a tetraploid that differs from P. corsica by its often white, or white with pink, (but in the east of its distribution pink or magenta) flowers, 3 mm (0.12 in) long light yellow straight bristly hairs on its carpels and mostly more than nine leaflets per leaf.

Distribution and habitat

P. corsica naturally occurs on Corsica, Sardinia and in Greece on the Ionian islands Cephalonia, Lefkada and Zakynthos, and mainland Aetolia-Acarnania. It grows in pine and oak dominated forests, in maquis shrubland and on grassy places on various soils and bedrock (such as limestone, granite and metamorphic).

Paeonia corsica - Wikipedia