1.
Paeonia brownii
Douglas ex Hooker, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 27. 1829.
Brown's peony
Plants
20-40 cm.
Leaves
usually 5-8 per shoot, primary divisions 3-6 × 2-5 cm, bases notably narrowed (stalklike), ultimate divisions mostly elliptic to obovate, apices usually obtuse to rounded, surfaces usually ± glaucous (at least abaxially).
Flowers:
petals maroon to bronze, margins yellowish or greenish, orbiculate, 8-13 mm, usually shorter than inner sepals; filaments 3-5 mm; anthers 2-4 mm.
Follicles
2-4 cm.
Seeds
cylindric, ca. 11 mm.
2
n
= 10.
Flowering (Mar-)May-Jun(-Aug). Open, dry pine forests, sagebrush, mountain brush, aspen; 200-3000 m; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.
Reports of
Paeonia brownii
from Canada evidently stem from early confusion between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Vancouver, Washington (H. J. Scoggan 1978-1979, vol. 3). The type of
P. brownii
was collected on Mount Hood in Oregon, about 75 kilometers from Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver), Washington, which was a base for the collector, David Douglas.
