Kingdom Plantae Clade Eudicots Family Paeoniaceae Scientific name Paeonia mlokosewitschii Rank Species | Clade Angiosperms Order Saxifragales Genus Paeonia Higher classification Paeonia sect. Paeonia | |
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Similar Peony, Paeonia tenuifolia, Paeonia daurica, Paeonia peregrina, Paeonia veitchii | ||
Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii (golden peony or Caucasian peony) is a peony native to the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Dagestan, where it grows on rocky slopes in oak, hornbeam, or beech forests. It was formerly regarded as a separate species, Paeonia mlokosewitschii, but in 2002, the Chinese botanist Hong Deyuan reduced it to a subspecies of Paeonia daurica.
It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing twenty-three to twenty-seven inches (60–70 cm) tall, with biternate, glaucous leaves with obovate lobes. In spring it bears large, single, lemon-yellow flowers five inches (10–12 cm) in diameter, the ovary pubescent, the two to four carpels white, pink or yellow, and the stamen filaments yellow-green.
It was discovered by the Polish botanist Ludwik Mlokosiewicz in 1897, after whom it was named by Aleksandr Lomakin. The plant is sometimes nicknamed "Molly the Witch", a humorous mispronunciation of the species name, which most non-Poles find difficult to pronounce.