''Paeonia parnassica'', the Greek peony, is a plant that is native to the mountains of south-central

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. The flowers are produced in late spring with a deep maroon red colouring on 65 cm stems. The blooms are large, up to 12 cm in diameter and bear a boss of rich orange

stamens 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 ...

. This

peony The peony or paeony is a flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'' , the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae . Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguished, ...

was once included with the species ''P. mascula''.

Genetics

The Greek peony is an autotetraploid (4n=20) of which the

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

parent must have gone extinct.

References

parnassica Endemic flora of Greece {{Saxifragales-stub