Authors:
Wild Distribution: Western USA mountains, Montana to Nevada, N. California.
Average Height: 30-45cm
Average Spread: 30-45cm
Life Cycle: Perennial
Plant Structure: Herb
Deciduous/Evergreen: Deciduous
Flower Colour: Purplish-green with a yellow edge
Leaf Colour: Silver-grey green
Difficulty: Hard
Sun/Shade: Sun
Soil Type: Alkaline
Moisture: Well Drained
A small peony with silvery dissected leaves and small nodding flowers of an unattractive colour.
Stems 25-40 cm. Leaves glabrous, a pale rather silvery green, often edged purple, biternate, the segments 3-6 x 2-5 cm, ovate, rounded to obtuse. Flowers on branched stems, nodding, almost globular, 2.5-3cm across, deep maroon to bronze, with petal edges greenish to yellowish, summer; tepals broader than long, the inner much shorter than the coloured outers (sepals); stamens dull yellow; carpels 2-5, green turning orange, glabrous. Grows in dry infertile, well-drained sites in chaparral, sagebrush scrub and pine forests on dry slopes at 900-2250m. Rather difficult to grow, requiring a low-nutrient site with perfect drainage; easily killed by overwatering.
