Tree peonies are deciduous shrubs belonging to genus Paeonia L., section Moutan DC., family Paeoniaceae Rudolphi. They are important ornamental and resource plants, having been cultivated in China for more than 1500 years; currently there are
There exist large accumulations of natural genetic diversifications under the natural and artificial selections on the flower among the Chinese tree peony cultivars incited by ornamental and medicinal uses in the past over 1500 years in China. Paeonia suffruticosa `Xiao Ci Wei' is a unique Chinese tree peony cultivar possessing special bicolored petals with tubular tip structure (Paeoniaceae). This natural mutant is not only a unique ornamental, but also a valuable material for scientific researches in Evodevotics.
Tree peony cultivars are usually classified according to flower characteristics (flower form and flower color) which are commonly affected by environmental influences and developmental levels. Judgment of flower forms may also depend on the observer. Precise and rapid cultivar identification methods are also required to manage cultivar collections as well as tree peony breeding programs. The objective of this paper is to analyze the discriminatory ability of leaf morphology and Intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker systems for tree peony cultivars. As a result, although there exist large variations of leaf morphology of tree peony cultivars, the morphological characteristics of biternately compound leaves 3, 4, and 5 from the base of a shoot at the middle part of a plant are relatively stable with smaller variations within cultivars (2.7% to 27.1%, 16.8% on average) and with larger differentiations among cultivars (72.9% to 97.3%, 83.2% on average). Statistical and principal components analyses indicate that 12 leaf morphological characteristics are valuable for cultivar classification. ISSR markers present a precisely discriminatory power in tree peony cultivar classification without environmental influences. The cultivars with multiple flower forms, which makes it difficult to make judgment by means of a flower-form-based classification system, have been significantly characterized using leaf morphology or ISSR markers.
The genus Paeonia consists of three sections ( Moutan DC., Onaepia Lindley, and Paeonia DC.) and ≈35 species to form an independent family, Paeoniaceae. Section Paeonia was further divided into two subsections [ Foliolatae F.C. Stern and
Tree peonies belong to section Moudan of the genus Paeonia in the family Paeoniaceae ( Cheng, 2007 ). They are valuable ornamental and medicinal plants native to China and have been widely used in garden greening and landscaping for a long time
Tree peony (a woody shrub of family Paeoniaceae, genus Paeonia , and section Moutan ) is native to China ( Wister, 1962 ). It has been planted for more than 1600 years in China and has been introduced to Japan, America, and Europe since the Tang
J. Hered. 87 241 245 Hong, D.Y. Pan, K.Y. 1999 Taxonomical history and revision of Paeonia sect. Moutan (Paeoniaceae) Acta Phytotax Sin. 37 351 368 Hong, D.Y. Pan, K.Y. 2005a Notes on taxonomy of Paeonia sect. Moutan dc. (Paeoniaceae) Acta Phytotax
petals during flower pigmentation. Our results will benefit further studies on the gene expression of tree peony and other species of the Paeoniaceae family. Materials and Methods Plant materials. Four separate individuals with purple-red, yellow, yellow
Peonies, family Paeoniaceae, were first recognized as a medicinal plant in Asia several thousand years ago ( Hsu et al., 1986 ). In the late 1700s, peonies were imported from Asia and Europe into North America for use as a garden flower ( Harding
Herbaceous peonies, famous ornamental plants of the genus Paeonia (Paeoniaceae), have more than 1000 years of cultivation history around the world. Herbaceous peonies are usually divided into three distinct groups based on their provenance around