Paeonia mlokosewitschii
James Waddick (Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:54:25 PDT)
On Apr 24, 2013, at 4:19 PM, aaron floden wrote:
Where is the molecular data!!! Lumping all these under one heterogenous P. daurica does not make much sense when there are ploidy differences between some of them (caucasica=daurica v. coriifolia is 2n=10, and wittmanniana is 2n=20, diploid and tetraploid).
Dear Aaron and all,
You are totally right. I was just reporting basically that the species is in a taxonomic complex and exhibits variability. Peony systematics are far from well understood or studied. The thing about all these so called daurica subspecies is that they do look a lot alike for what that's worth.
The only recent phylogeny is from Russia and has a large polytomy where some of these Caucasus species included (they still include oreogeton). They also have the occasional hybrids that lead to the variability of flower color named; chamaeleon and litvinskajae.
Yet another taxonomic mess.
Is that third and final part of the series out? Really, the phylogeny should have been first. So far I've only seen thorough analyses of the Moutan.
The 3rd Vol from Hong is still in process, but due later this year, I think. Will it clarify things? I doubt it. Unfortunately there's no one doing serious research on this topic. Best Jim W.