Paeonia brownii

Brown's peony

Family: Paeoniaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Brown's peony is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, northern and north-central Sierra Nevada, southeastern San Francisco Bay Area (Mount Hamilton), Modoc Plateau, and northern Sierra Nevada east in open, dry pine forest and scrub at elevations of 200 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces deep red to maroon flowers with petals 8 to 13 millimeters long. Growing with generally simple stems, it forms an upright clump 30 to 50 centimeters tall. Its distinctive leaves have primary divisions 3 to 6 centimeters long with ultimate leaf segments that are nearly elliptical and tapered at the base. The large seed pods reach 2 to 4 centimeters in length, containing seeds approximately 11 millimeters long.

Habitat: Open, dry pine forest, scrub

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 200-3000 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, n&ampn-c SN, se SnFrB (Mount Hamilton), MP, n SNE

California counties: Mendocino, Siskiyou, Shasta, Modoc, Plumas, El Dorado, Santa Clara, Calaveras, Placer, Mono, Lassen, Nevada, Lake, Sierra, San Diego, Butte, Alpine, Amador, Trinity, San Bernardino, Tehama, Tuolumne, Humboldt, Colusa, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.