accepted name
(2005)
A curious herbal, containing five hundred cuts, of the most useful plants, which are now used in the practice of physick : engraved on folio copper plates, after drawings taken from the life / by Elizabeth Blackwell. To which is added a short description of ye plants and their common uses in physick.
Author: Blackwell, Elizabeth
Additional Authors: Harding, Samuel
Publisher: London : Printed for Samuel Harding, 1737-1739.
1753
Carl von Linné (Syn. Carolus Linnaeus)
For Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) all the kinds of peony distinguished by his predecessors belonged to one species which he named Paeonia officinalis in his Species Plantarum 1:530 (1753), the starting point of modern botanical literature: “limites inter species non reperi, hinc conjunxi” he stated, “I have not discovered limits between species, hence I have united them”. His specific epithet officinalis refers to their medicinal repute. He maintained, however, the traditional distinction between the female and male peonies derived From Dioscorides by treating them as varieties, one being named
var. (alpha) feminea the other
var. (beta) mascula.
Later authors separating them as species have restricted the specific name P. officinalis to his var. (alpha) the plant illustrated in 1542 by Fuchs, whose woodcut he selected as an outstanding representation.
Common names
Mu Shao Yao Sakayik Yoshu-Syakuyaku
1946
1995
Cullen & Heywood in Tutin: Flora Europaea
5. P. officinalis L., Sp. Pl. 530 (1753). Lower leaves divided into 17-30 segments, pubescent beneath, glabrous above; petioles deeply channelled on the upper surface. Flowers 7-13 cm in diameter, red. Filaments red. Follicles 2 or 3, 2-3-5 cm, usually tomentose, sometimes glabrous. S. & S.C. Europe. Al Ga He Hi Hu It Ju Lu Rm [Ge].
