''Paeonia broteri'' is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

species of peony. It is an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. It bears rose-pink highly fragrant

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s about 12 cm wide and glossy green leaves. It reaches up to in height.

Description

''Paeonia broteri'' is a perennial, herbaceous plant of 30–80 cm in height. It is a diploid species with ten chromosomes (2n=10).

Roots, stems and leaves

It has carrot-shaped roots up to 3 cm thick, from which the plant regrows early in spring, when conditions are best for plant growth in its home range. It also has thin lateral roots. Its stems are often tinged purple. Its leaves consist of three sets of mostly three leaflets, which may be deeply incised themselves, resulting in ten to thirty oval or longish oval segments (1½-5 or rarely up to 6½ cm wide), with a wedge-shaped foot, a more or less pointy tip, shiny bright green upper surface, and a (nearly) hairless, distinctly blue-green underside. Peony seedhead

Flowers, fruits and seeds

The flowers are set individually at the top of the stems, are mostly subtended by one or two

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s looking like a leaf segment, and may be up to 15–16 cm in diameter. It has three, sometimes four,

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s, green with a purple margin, of approximately 3 cm long and 2½ cm wide, with rounded tips. There are five or six magenta or pinkish magenta

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s, each 5–6 cm long and 3–4 cm wide. Numerous

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s consist of cream-colored, yellowish or purple filaments topped with yellow

anthers The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

. There are mostly two or three (occasionally one or four, rarely five) carpels covered in 2 mm long rust-colored hairs, with at their tips very short red stigmas of 2½ mm wide, their base encircled by a 2 mm high

disk Disk or disc may refer to: * Disk (mathematics), a geometric shape * Disk storage Music * Disc (band), an American experimental music band * ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby Other uses * Disk (functional analysis), a subset of a vector sp ...

. The fruit consists of two to three (seldom one or four) follicles, each of which is up to 2½-4 cm high, and is covered in dense felty hairs which persist when fully grown. In its home range, this species has flowers from late March to May, but in The Netherlands flowering occurs in June and early July. The seeds are about 7–8 mm in size, reddish at first but blackish when ripe.

Differences with related species

''Paeonia broteri'' is closely related to '' Paeonia clusii'' and shares the same characters except for the different average numbers of leaflet segments: 11–32 in ''P. broteri'', 23–48 in ''P. clusii'' subsp. ''rhodia'' and 23–96 in ''P. clusii'' subsp. ''clusii''. ''P. broteri'' also looks like the

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

'' P. coriacea'', but this species can be distinguished by its hairless carpels and wider leaflet segments (2–8 cm). '' P. mascula'' may also be confused with ''P. broteri'', but this has only ten to eighteen (seldom up to twenty one) and larger (4½–18 × 3–9 cm) leaflet segments, while its carpels are mostly hairless and if present the hairs are about 2 mm long, whereas the densely hairy carpels of ''P. broteri'' carry hairs about 3 mm long. The distinctiveness of ''P. coriacea'' and ''P. mascula'' from ''P. broteri'' is confirmed by their

tetraploidy Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contains ...

(2n=20), while ''P. broteri'' is a diploid.

Etymology

The species was named in honor of the Portuguese botanist Félix Avelar Brotero.

Distribution

''Paeonia broteri'' naturally occurs mostly in the western part of the

(most of Portugal and western Spain) except the humid Northwest (north-western Portugal and

Green Spain Cantabrian Coast is the name given to a lush natural region in Northern Spain, stretching along the Atlantic coast from the border with Portugal to the border with France. The region includes nearly all of Galicia, Asturias, and Cantabria, in ...

). Two specimens claimed to be from northern Morocco are probably from Spain. Despite its wide range, it is very dispersed through shrubs, oak or pine forests, in limestone soils from in altitude.

Ecology

In the wild, ''P. broteri'' flowers between April and early June. Seeds become ripe in August or September. It grows in meadows, pastures and in the undergrowth of schrubs, pine and oak forests on well-matured soils on limestone, at an altitude between 300 and 1800 m. It is also common in rocky places and screes, particularly in humid spots. It grows together with '' Adonis vernalis'', '' Cytisus reverchonii'', '' Quercus rotundifolia'', '' Pinus nigra'', ''

Pinus pinaster ''Pinus pinaster'', the maritime pine or cluster pine, is a pine native to the south Atlantic Europe region and parts of the western Mediterranean. It is a hard, fast growing pine bearing small seeds with large wings. Description ''Pinus pina ...

'', and ''

Polygonatum odoratum ''Polygonatum odoratum'' ( syn. ''P. officinale''), the angular Solomon's seal or scented Solomon's seal, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Europe, the Caucasus, Siberia, the Russian Far East, China, Mongolia ...

''. Plants that grow in different regions vary in the number of flowers per plant, in petal size, the number of stamens per flower, and the number of ovules in each carpel. These differences are related to the dominant pollinators, such as honey bees and bumble bees (''

Bombus terrestris ''Bombus terrestris'', the buff-tailed bumblebee or large earth bumblebee, is one of the most numerous bumblebee species in Europe. It is one of the main species used in greenhouse pollination, and so can be found in many countries and areas wher ...

'') in the

Sierra de Cazorla Sierra de Cazorla is a mountain range of the Prebaetic System in the Jaén Province in Spain. It is named after the town of Cazorla. Its highest point is the 1,847 m high Gilillo peak. Geography This mountain range is located between the Sierr ...

and smaller halictid bees in the Sierra de Jaén.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3360396 broteri Endemic flora of the Iberian Peninsula Plants described in 1842 Taxa named by Pierre Edmond Boissier Taxa named by George François Reuter