Website/Catalog  (29 Jan 2010)  Includes photo(s).
 
Paeonia tenuifolia L.
A fully-hardy herbaceous perennial with deeply cut, fern-like leaves and single, cup-shaped, deep red flowers in spring and summer.  To 70cm.  [RHSE, Hortus].

Horticultural & Botanical History
‘This very ornamental flower is perfectly hardy, thriving almost in any soil or situation.  Grows naturally in the Ukraine and about the precipices on the borders of the Tanais, the Volga, and the Terek.  The flowers of the wild plant are far less specious than when cultivated.’  [BM t.926/1806].  Introduced to Britain in 1765.  [JD]. 
In describing Paeonia hybrida Pall., the Botanical Register comments: ‘This is the most beautiful of the cut-leaved Paeonies, from all of which it differs strikingly in the deeper red of its flowers.  According to Marshall von Bieberstein [...] P. laciniata of Willdenow, cited to be P. tenuifolia by M. Decondelle, is the same as P. hybrida.’  [BR f.1208/1829].  Paeonia hybrida Pall. is now considered a form of Paeonia tenuifolia L.

History at Camden Park
Received per ‘Sovereign’ February 1831, the only reference to this plant.  [MP A2948].

Book  (2005)  Page(s) 43.  Includes photo(s).
 
Marmara Region. Ergene Basin. Edirne / Kirklareli.
... Among the rare taxons in the region are...Paeonia tenuifolia...which is listed in the Bern Agreement Additional List I.
Species endangered on European level. Paeonia tenuifolia (n/l) [Not listed in the IUCN danger categories]

Article (magazine)  (2003)  Page(s) 138.  
 
According to our observations in the fiels and in the herbaria....Paeonia in the Caucasus may be classified clearly into three major groups as follows:
1 Roots fusiformly thickened; leaflets/segments of lower leaves more than 70 in number, narrow-lanceolate to filiform, less than 1.5 cm wide
2 Leaflets/segments of lower leaves with segments less than 100 in number, narrow-lanceolate ......1 Intermedia group.
2 Leaflets/segments of lower leaves more than 130 in number, linear to filiform..... 2 Tenuifolia group.
2 Roots carrot-shaped; leaflets of lower leaves mostly 9, rarely 10-19; leaflets ovate, oblong or obovate, over 3 cm wide......3 Daurica group.

Article (magazine)  (2003)  Page(s) 137.  
 
Georgia: Kartli, Igoeti, 630 m Sandstones, S. slope, sparse bushes and grasses...P. tenuifolia

Georgia: Kartli, Mukhrani, near Village Dampalo, 760 m S. slope, river terrace, sparse bushes and young trees...The type locality of P. carthalinica (= P. tenuifolia)

Russia: Stavropol, 630 m Gentle S. slope, sloping meadows,....The type locality of P. biebersteiniana (= P. tenuifolia), and P. tenuifolia

Article (magazine)  (2003)  Page(s) 138.  Includes photo(s).
 
TENUIFOLIA This group includes P. tenuifolia L., P. biebersteiniana Rupr. and P. carthalinica N. Ketzch. The first was described from Ukraine, the second from Stavropol in north Caucasus (Russia), and the third from Kartli, Georgia.
....We visited Temnolesskaya, south of Stavropol, Russia, the type locality of P. biebersteiniana. We found a huge population there stretching over hundreds of metres on sloping meadows. Two population samples were taken at an interval of about 500 m.... All plants possessed fusiform roots, biternate leaves with 134–340 segments and red flowers, but varied in colour of filaments, colour and number of carpels, and width of leaf segments. Filament colour varied widely from yellowish white, pink below and red above, to totally red; carpels were one, two or three in number, all tomentose, with hair colour green or red (Figs 1–3); the width of leaf segments varied from 1.2 to 4.3 mm. Sixty-seven herbarium specimens in LE from the Ukraine and north Caucasus were measured; P. biebersteiniana varies from 0.5 to 6.0 mm.

Article (magazine)  (2003)  Page(s) 143-144.  
 
Paeonia tenuifolia Linnaeus, SP. Pl. ed. 2. 748. 1762;....Paeonia biebersteiniana Ruprecht in Mem. Acad. Imper. Sci. St.-Petersb. Ser. 7. 15(2) (Fl. Caucas.): 47. 1869;...Paeonia tenuifolia var. biebersteiniana (Rupr.) Busch, Fl. Caucas. Crit. 3(3): 9 et 224. 1901; .....Paeonia carthalinica N. Ketzchoweli in Notul. Syst. ac Geogr. Inst. Bot. Thbil., 21: 18. 1958;.....Perennials with roots consistently fusiform-thickened. Leaves biternate, leaflets fine-segmented, with >130 segments, segments varying from 0. 5 to 6 mm in width, glabrous on both sides, rarely with sparse bristles along veins on the upper surface. Flowers consistently red; bracts and sepals green, green but purple-red at periphery to totally purple-red; filaments entirely yellowish white, pink below but yellowish white above to entirely purple-red; carpels 1–3, consistently tomentose, hairs green, yellow to totally purple; stigmata red. ....The species is distributed in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania, south-west Russia and Ukraine. Within the Caucasus, it is mainly found in the northern part of the region; Azerbaijan and Georgia each have only one locality. It grows in meadows, sparse bushes and sparse woods. It is confined to below 800 m, and flowers from late April to early June, 2n = 10.

Book  (Jan 1999)  Page(s) 32, 33, 324.  Includes photo(s).
 
Page 32: Paeonia tenuifolia the fern-leaved peony... First mentioned in a European catalogue in 1757 and described by Carl Linnaeus in 1759, it was probably introduced to England in 1765 by William Malcolm... the earliest peony to flower... scented, blood-red single flowers... with a boss of yellow stamens at the centre
Page 33: [Illustration] from the 1806 volume of William Curtis' Botanical Magazine
Page 324: P. tenuifolia Herbaceous Peony... dark red

Website/Catalog  (1925)  Page(s) 40.  
 
Tenuifolia. Finely cut foliage, single, bright red, anemone-like......1 piece M 2.50, 100 pieces M 230.-

Website/Catalog  (1919)  Page(s) 37.  
 
Paeonia tenuifolia, finely cut foliage, single blooms, bright red, anemone-like, beautiful....10 pieces M 7.-, 100 pieces M 60.-

Book  (1917)  Page(s) 30.  Includes photo(s).
 
P. tenuifolia (narrow-leaved)—see colour plate —introduced into England in 1765 from the Caucasus.