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Paeonia clusii; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2004-05-02

Paeonia clusii Stern

Clusius' Peony

Paeoniaceae · Kriti, East Aegean Is. · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Paeonia clusii Stern: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, F.C.Stearn.

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Paeonia clusii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaeonia clusii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaeonia clusii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaeonia clusii, photograph (c) Cindy Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Paeonia clusii, photograph (c) Cindy Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Paeonia clusii, photograph (c) Elias, some rights reserved (CC BY) 22 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.4°C
Record low 2.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
633mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–51DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Paeonia clusii is a relatively low (25–50 cm) species of herbaceous peony with scented, white or pink flowers of up to 12 cm in diameter. In the wild, the species can only be found on the islands of Crete and Karpathos (subsp. clusii), and Rhodes (subsp. rhodia). It has pinkish-purple stem up to 30 cm long and glaucous dissected leaves. P. clusii blooms in mid-spring.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Paeonia clusii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Paeonia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (528 mm of 664 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.6 °C against a yearly mean of 16.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

664 mm in the median year at the habitat, 528 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 136 mm, driest months (2 at 2 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 510 mm to 1,123 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 633 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 664 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 51 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.4 °C, the absolute minimum 2.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.8 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 1.2 °C to 11.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.7 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +315 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Paeonia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Paeonia clusii through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 7.8 °C; 664 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°28.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 15–51RH 49–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 25 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 6–1411 / 6–1313 / 9–1416 / 12–1719 / 17–2123 / 21–2525 / 22–2726 / 23–2823 / 20–2521 / 16–2216 / 12–1813 / 8–15
Night °C8 / 2–128 / 1–119 / 3–1212 / 6–1415 / 10–1719 / 14–2122 / 16–2322 / 17–2420 / 14–2217 / 11–1913 / 7–1610 / 4–13
Rain mm136 / 114–21798 / 82–18369 / 55–12036 / 29–5618 / 12–244 / 1–52 / 0–22 / 0–320 / 6–2754 / 36–9395 / 73–180130 / 99–214
DLI17 / 15–1923 / 20–2532 / 30–3340 / 39–4147 / 46–4751 / 51–5251 / 50–5146 / 45–4637 / 35–3827 / 25–2819 / 16–2015 / 13–16
RH %61 / 59–6661 / 59–6559 / 54–6156 / 48–6053 / 46–5951 / 44–5749 / 44–5752 / 45–5954 / 48–5959 / 52–6161 / 56–6362 / 59–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 25 grid cells holding the 58 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1091:4081 (35.425, 24.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 25 distinct grid cells holding 58 of the 58 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1091:4081 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_24.375, lapse-corrected +315 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 446 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeKriti, East Aegean Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker36.272, 27.946 · in the densest population, 53 records (55% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 96 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 58 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 43 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 38 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 10935312 (Paeonia clusii Stern): Kew's file holds it as Paeonia clusii Stern (accepted); 2 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 96 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Paeonia clusii, photograph 1did not loadPaeonia clusii, photograph 2did not loadPaeonia clusii, photograph 3did not loadPaeonia clusii, photograph 4did not loadPaeonia clusii, photograph 5did not loadPaeonia clusii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Cindy Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Elias, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Brassica cretica Brassica cretica Mustard Photo: CC BY, Daniel CahenPseudodictamnus acetabulosus Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus False Dittany Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968Anthemis chia Anthemis chia Chios Chamomile Photo: CC BY, Umut Nuri ErdoğanEuphorbia acanthothamnos Euphorbia acanthothamnos Greek spiny spurge Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios KatsillisArum creticum Arum creticum Cretan Arum Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios KatsillisColchicum variegatum Colchicum variegatum Colchicaceae Photo: CC BY, Anna Maranti

Other Paeonia 27 in the reference

Paeonia anomala Paeonia anomala Anomalous peony Photo: CC0, Юрий НосковPaeonia arietina Paeonia arietina Paeoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Benjamin ZwittnigPaeonia broteri Paeonia broteri Paeoniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Javier martinPaeonia brownii Paeonia brownii Brown's peony Photo: CC0, author not statedPaeonia californica Paeonia californica Paeoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerPaeonia cambessedesii Paeonia cambessedesii Paeoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Niko IoannidisPaeonia coriacea Paeonia coriacea Paeoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Santiago Martín-BravoPaeonia corsica Paeonia corsica Paeoniaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPaeonia daurica Paeonia daurica Crimean peony Photo: CC BY, Сергей ГолубевPaeonia delavayi Paeonia delavayi Tree peony Photo: CC BY, Morten RossPaeonia emodi Paeonia emodi Himalayan Peony Photo: CC BY-SA, deepachandranPaeonia intermedia Paeonia intermedia Paeoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexander Dubynin all 28 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Paeonia foemina var. cretica; Paeonia foeminea var. cretica; Paeonia officinalis var. cretica; Paeonia peregrina var. cretica. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Paeoniaceae
Described by
Stern
Native to
Kriti, East Aegean Is.
Wild records
96 in range · 43 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7316513 is Paeonia clusii F.C.Stearn; Kew accepts Paeonia clusii Stern, and the name is cited as Kew accepts it; its synonyms and common names are read from GBIF's Paeonia clusii Stern (10935312) too
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-224 read from GBIF's Paeonia clusii Stern (10935312)
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2 records of GBIF's key 10935312, Paeonia clusii Stern (Kew's file holds it as Paeonia clusii Stern (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_24.375, lapse-corrected +315 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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