Species
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Paeonia officinalis L.

Common Peony, European peony, Garden Peony, cottage peony

Climate known 81 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Paeonia officinalis, the common peony, or garden peony, is a species of flowering plant in the family Paeoniaceae, native to mainly mountainous areas of Southern Europe and introduced in Central and Western Europe and North America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Paeonia officinalis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Paeoniaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Hungary, Switzerland, France +6
Wild records
830 in range· 475 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
973mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 115 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Paeonia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and April to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 973 mm a year, wettest October at 115 mm, driest July at 48 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -7.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as ? microcarpa Nyman; Paeonia barriae Lynch; Paeonia festa Steud.; Paeonia foeminea (L.) Miller; Paeonia lusitanica Tausch and 7 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Paeonia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and April to June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (743 mm of 973 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and April to June. Mean temperature moves 17.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and October to December.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 973 mm a year, wettest October at 115 mm, driest July at 48 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

973 mm a year at the habitat, 743 mm of it September to January and April to June. Wettest month October at 115 mm, driest July at 48 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 622 mm to 1439 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -7.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -7.7 °C, the absolute minimum -15.0 °C, about 107 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.1 °C to 1.6 °C), warmest day 24.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 973 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 550 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 9–44RH 56–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 550 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 3–97 / 4–1011 / 7–1413 / 10–1617 / 14–2121 / 18–2524 / 21–2824 / 21–2820 / 17–2315 / 13–1810 / 7–137 / 4–10
Night °C-1 / -6–2-1 / -6–21 / -3–44 / -0–78 / 4–1111 / 8–1414 / 10–1714 / 11–1711 / 7–147 / 4–103 / -1–5-0 / -5–3
Rain mm76 / 39–11558 / 36–9963 / 39–9592 / 56–12993 / 64–13967 / 39–12648 / 16–11361 / 21–11993 / 44–142115 / 67–178109 / 56–16098 / 53–152
DLI11 / 8–1517 / 13–2126 / 21–3033 / 29–3638 / 33–4142 / 36–4644 / 36–4838 / 31–4228 / 23–3218 / 14–2212 / 9–169 / 6–13
RH %61 / 56–6760 / 56–6458 / 55–6258 / 56–6159 / 55–6157 / 53–6156 / 50–6056 / 51–6059 / 54–6261 / 59–6562 / 59–6761 / 57–67

Each figure is the median across the 550 grid cells holding the 810 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 994:3591 (40.275, -0.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 550 distinct grid cells holding the 810 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 994:3591 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.50_-0.625, lapse-corrected +182 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1370 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeHungary, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Vermont
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker44.207, 5.729 · in the densest population, 400 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 830 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 475 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 386 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 20 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 830 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Paeonia officinalisPaeonia officinalisPaeonia officinalisPaeonia officinalisPaeonia officinalisPaeonia officinalisPaeonia officinalisPaeonia officinalis

Photographs: (c) Yves Bas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Paeonia officinalis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Speciation through homoploid hybridization between allotetraploids in peonies ( Paeonia )
Diane Ferguson, Tao Sang (2001) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Exploring wild edible flowers as a source of bioactive compounds: New perspectives in horticulture
Sonia Demasi, Matteo Caser, Dario Donno, Simone Ravetto Enri (2021) · Folia Horticulturae
Sensory Profile, Shelf Life, and Dynamics of Bioactive Compounds during Cold Storage of 17 Edible Flowers
Sonia Demasi, Maria Gabriella Mellano, Nicole Mélanie Falla, Matteo Caser (2021) · Horticulturae
Isolation of Strong Antioxidants from Paeonia Officinalis Roots and Leaves and Evaluation of Their Bioactivities
Lijana Dienaitė, Milda Pukalskienė, Audrius Pukalskas, Carolina V. Pereira (2019) · Antioxidants
Preliminary phytochemical, acute oral toxicity and antihepatotoxic study of roots of Paeonia officinalis Linn.
Feroz Ahmad, Nahida Tabassum (2013) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
Bioassay-Guided Fractionation with Antimalarial and Antimicrobial Activities of Paeonia officinalis
Mamdouh Nabil Samy, Basma Khalaf Mahmoud, Nourhan Hisham Shady, Usama Ramadan Abdelmohsen (2022) · Molecules
The possibility of obtaining seeds following placental pollinationin vitro
Miluše Zůbková, Z. Sladký (1975) · Biologia Plantarum
Effect of 70% ethanolic extract of roots of Paeonia officinalis Linn. on hepatotoxicity
Feroz Ahmad, Nahida Tabassum (2013) · Journal of Acute Medicine

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Paeonia 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 124 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.