Article (magazine)  (2013)  
 
Pæonia ×suffruticosa Andrews (Pom. 1838; then and in  Krzemieńiec, Niedźwiedzi and Warszaw)

Website/Catalog  (29 Jan 2010)  
 
Paeonia suffruticosa Andr. var. speciosa
See Paeonia suffruticosa Andr. for a description of the species.  According to Johnson’s Dictionary it has pink flowers but I have no more detailed description.  

Horticultural & Botanical History
Introduced from China in 1825.  [JD].

History at Camden Park
Desideratum to Loddiges’ Nursery, 6th January 1845.  [MP A2933-2, p.28].  Macarthur records receiving four ‘Moutans, said to be various’, among a number of plants received from Captain Simpson in late 1849 or early 1850, apparently on the same ship as those accompanying Captain P. P. King.  The source is unclear.  [ML A1980-3].  This plant may be amongst these.

Website/Catalog  (29 Jan 2010)  Includes photo(s).
 
Paeonia suffruticosa Andr.
Fully-hardy, upright, sparsely-branched deciduous shrub with deeply cut leaves composed of 9 elliptic leaflets, and single or double, cup- to bowl-shaped, sometimes scented, white, pink, red or purple flowers, to 30cm across, often with maroon marks at the base, in spring and summer.  To 2.2m.  [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].

Horticultural & Botanical History
It seems likely that the plant listed in the catalogues was a more ornamental cultivar than the type, probably a double form similar to the plant figured in the Botanical Register, Paeonia moutan var. albida plena: ‘This noble variety of the Tree Paeony was raised by the Earl of Mountnorris from seeds of P. papavaracea.’  The plant figured has double white flowers, red at the base of the petals.  [BR f.1678/1834].  A very similar plant had previously been figured at BR f.379/1820. 
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine gives a succinct account of the history of this plant.  ‘The Moutan, though cultivated in China about fourteen hundred years, is considered in that ancient empire, according to the missionaries, as rather of modern introduction.  The Chinese writers seem to differ in their accounts with regard to its origin, some attributing it to a particular process of culture, by which the common Peony has been converted into this magnificent shrub, sometimes attaining, as it is said, in the province of Lo-Yang, the soil and climate of which is particularly favourable, the height of eight or ten feet whilst others, perhaps with more probability, say it was first discovered growing among the mountains in Northern China, whence it was brought into the Southern provinces, and cultivated with the same rage as Tulips have been in Europe, and with a similar effect of producing numerous varieties, some of which, from their beauty and rarity, have been known to sell in China for a hundred ounces of gold.  Notwithstanding the Chinese Florists differ from the European, in rejecting all variegated flowers, considering such as contrary to nature, they enumerate two hundred and forty species, as they are called, many of them of exquisite beauty and delightful fragrance.
Thunberg, as well as Loureiro, as is evident by his having given as synonyms both the Saku-Jaku and Botan of Kaempfer, considered this plant to be the same species with the Paeonia officinalis of Linnaeus, which is likewise cultivated in China, and much used there in medicine.
The Paeonia papaveracea of Andrews we suspect may be a mere variety of the Moutan with white flowers spotted with crimson; and that the singular union of six capsules into a globular seed-vessel with six cells, is an accidental sporting of nature.  If this structure of the fruit be natural, it will afford not a specific but a generic distinction.
For the introduction of this valuable acquisition to our gardens, we are indebted to Sir Joseph Banks, who instructed several persons trading in Canton, to inquire for the Moutan, the name by which it is known in China; in consequence of which numerous specimens were sent to this country, most of them however perished in the voyage.  Since that time several varieties have been imported in a growing state, but we have not seen any that were remarkable for the fragrance of their flowers.’  [BM t.1154/1808].  
Another double flowered form, of a bright carmine colour, is figured in the Ornamental Flower Garden under the name Moutan officinalis Lindl. var. punicea [OFG f.145/1854].  The double flowered variety rosea plena is figured at Fl.Ca. p.37/1839, a double pink form similar to rosea plena is figured at BM t.1154/1808 and a named variety, ‘Triumphe de Gerard’, with very double, bright pink flowers, at FS f.1395-1396/1859. 
Introduced to Britain from China in 1789.  ‘Although introduced so long since, it is still rare; and must be treated as a very hardy greenhouse plant.’  [ABR pl.373/1804].  ‘All the plants hitherto received from China have double flowers.’  Two varieties are listed, with rose and purple flowers.  [ABR pl.448/1807].

History at Camden Park
Listed in all published catalogues [T.742/1843].

Website/Catalog  (11 Dec 2008)  
 
The two most important species are P. Lactiflora and P.suffruticosa. These are both Chinese species the later of which is commonly known as tree peony and has been cultivated for approximately 4000 years. The chinese name for this plant is mu dan (牡丹). In Chinese medicine we call the medicinal mu dan pi (牡丹皮) because the bark of the root is used as medicine - the thirs part of the name means skin or bark...
Posted on December 11, 2008 by thomas...

Article (magazine)  (2007)  Page(s) 151.  
 
The aesthete Emperor Hui Zong (r. 1101-1126) who had created a special office called "Net of flowers and stones" hua shi gang, to collect the strangest and most beautiful things in the empire, ordered a man named Liu You, from what is today Sichuan province, to come and live sevwral months at the capital to work in the imperial garden because of his fame as an extraordinary grafter. Among the marvels he produced there was...hundreds of different kinds of tree peonies mudan (Paeonia suffruticosa Andr. = P. moutan Sims.), and herbaceous peonies shaoyao (Paeonia albiflora Pall.), some with different kinds of flowers on the same plant, some with the same flowers but of different colors; and golden lotuses with double flowers, an indescribable luxuriance of fragrance and beauty.

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 308.  
 
Plant Introductions in the period 1700-1799
1787 Paeonia suffruticosa Moutan or Tree Peony. China, Tibet, Bhutan.

Article (magazine)  (2001)  Page(s) 156.  
 
Dr Osti (1994: 203) wrote that: 'everybody agrees that P. suffruticosa was first described on the basis of a plant which was a hybrid cultivar.' He has been in contact with both Chinese and western botanists for a number of years. Wang Lianying (1997: 8) suggests P. spontanea, P. rockii and P. ostii as the parents of the main group of tree peony cultivars. Yu, Li and Zhou (1987) analysed the karyotypes of P. suffruticosa var. papaveracea (i.e. P. rockii) and P. suffruticosa var. spontanea (i.e. P. spontanea) and compared them with the karyotypes of several cultivars of P. suffruticosa. They concluded that some cultivars appeared to be close to P. rockii and some close to P. spontanea, suggesting either that the cultivars were derived from different ancestors or were of hybrid origin. Unfortunately however, neither karyotype analysis nor studies of DNA have yet provided very substantial evidence for the ancestry of P. suffruticosa.....The external morphology of P. suffruticosa cultivars strongly suggests hybridity. Many cultivars have more or less distinct basal blotches on their flower petals, indicating the likelihood of P. rockii being involved in their parentage, but their leaves are clearly distinct from those of P. rockii and closer to those of either P. ostii or P. spontanea. Most cultivars produce basal suckers, (very rare in R rockii), even if they have flowers with blotched petals. The shape and number of leaflets and the growth habit of P. suffruticosa cultivars vary considerably. Seedlings from a single plant often show a wide range of variation. It is also significant that the cultivars are often self-fertile: tree peony species are usually strongly reluctant to self-pollinate.......The strong likelihood is that P. suffruticosa is the result of hybridisation between P. rockii, P. ostii and P. spontanea, with back-crossing and selection over a period of several centuries.

Article (magazine)  (2001)  
 
Hybrid taxa:
Paeonia X suffruticosa Andrews, pro sp., Bot. Rep. 6: t. 373 (1804); Stern, Stud. Gen. Paeonia 40 (1946); .....P. arborea Donn, Hortus Cantabrig., 3rd. ed., 102 (1804);.....P. suffruticosa var. purpurea Andrews, Bot. Rep. 7: t. 448 (1807); P. papaveracea Andrews, Bot. Rep. 7: t. 463 (1807); P. moutan Sims, Curtis' Bot. Mag. 29: t. 1154 (1808); P. fruticosa Dum. Cours., Bot. Cult., ed. 2, 4: 462 (1811);
This taxon originated centuries ago in China and is believed to be the result of hybridisation between P. spontanea, P. ostii and P. rockii.

Book  (Jan 2000)  Page(s) 47-48.  
 
Stern grouped the woody peonies, his section , into two subsections. The first, subsection Vaginatae, contained Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews and a variety spontanea Rehder. It was not until 1913, however, that Reginald Farrer reported sighting P. suffruticosa in the wild....
In recent years Chines botanists have undertaken extensive field studies aimed at locating wild populations of tree peonies and at distinguishing and analyzing the various forms of the species which have until now been loosely subsumed under the name Paeonia suffruticosa. The leading figure in this effort is Hong tao of the Chinese Academy of Forestry in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Italy's Gian Lupo Osti has been associated with much of this work as well.
As a result of their explorations and botanical investigations, a different classification system for tree peonies, published in China's Bulletin of Botanical research, was proposed by Hong and his Chinese associates in 1992. Hong's principal and most radical thesis is that the numerous plants previously designated as Paeonia suffruticosa are in fact cultivars developed in China (and later in Japan) over a period of centuries and were derived from various crosses between four wild species newly described by him and his associates. In particular, Hong believes that one of these species, P. ostii, is the wild woody peony from which many of the tree peony cultivars originated. He therefore identifies what we would call suffruticosas as "Osti's peony cultivar group" and notes that members of this group are particularly well adapted to the warmer subtropical climate of southern China.
Hong and his associates conclude that the term "suffruticosa" should be used to encompass what is in fact only a large group of cultivars. The four species they describe all contributed to a greater or lesser extent, in their judgement, to the gene pool of this "suffruticosa" cultivar group. Most of the presently known garden forms of tree peonies appear to be members of this group.
Because the Chinese work was based upon extensive and detailed examinations of a large number of plants in their native habitat, I believe these studies supersede even the recent classificaton system of Haw and Lauener (1990) as well as that of Stern and others.

Book  (Jan 1999)  Page(s) 633.  
 
Paeonia suffruticosa Native to China... deciduous shrub... very large single or double cup-shaped flowers in spring... Depending on the variety, these are white, pink, red, or yellow