The Caucasian Representatives of the Genus Paeonia L.
L.M. Kemularia-Nathadse, Trudy Tiflis. Botan. Sada 1961
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Chapter IV
Systematic analysis of Caucasian species of the genus Paeonia L.
12. Paeonia carthalinica N. Ketzch.
Ketskoveli. The basic plants types of Georgia (1935) 20 (descr. georg.) in Notul. Syst. ac georg. Inst. Bot. Tifl., 21 (1959) 18; Kemularia-Nathadse in Fl. Georgia IV (1948) 7. Syn. P. tenuifolia auct. cauc. pp.
Perennial. The rhizomes are branchy with round, nearly global or round-ovate cone-shaped root thickenings; stems are simple or branchy, 30-100 cm high; leaves are manifold dissected into long narrow-linear unpendent lacinules with a width 5-10 mm; upper cauline leaves are wrapping a blossom. The blossoms are 5-7 cm in diameter, with dark-purple petals which are fusiformly tapering at the base; anthers are yellow; filaments are dark-purple; ovary is ovate with dense yellowish-tomentose pubescence. The fruits are ovate, almost upright, with yellowish-tomentose and less frequently red pubescence; getting ripe, the fruits become yellowish-grayish or gray downy. The seeds are oblong, blackish-brownish, III.IV.V.
Habitat. Foot-hills, in light oak-hornbeam forests or upon margins, mesophyllous variants of the prickly-shrubbery formation.
Original area. Georgia, Kartly.
Type. Kartly, between the villages Igoiti and Lamiskana 15. V. 1935 N. Ketskoveli.
Studied samples. Kartly, the Goriysky region. Mukhrani beyond the vill. Dampalo 15. V. 1935 Ketskhoveli, Kemularia-Nathadse!
Metskhetsky region, beyond the vill. Tsilkani 12. V. 1949 Dumbadze!
vill. Igoiti 15. V. 1958, 4. V. 1959 N. Ketskhoveli!
Shiraki. Between the vill. Keda and mm. Shavimta 19.VII.1927 Z. Kanchaveli!
the Peony gorge 4. V. 1955 Kakulia, Sokhadze, Kebadze.!
Remarks. It is very closely related with P. tenuifolia L. from which it differs with broader leaf-lobes and grayish pubescence of ovaries and fruits. With the above-indicated features, the Kartlinsky peony resembles P. Biebersteiniana Rupr. growing upon Stavropol hills; the latter species differs from the Kartlinsky species with grayish leaves which lobes are covered with hairs growing in rows along veins at the upper side.
Possibly, the Kartlinsky and Stavropolsky peonies are identical, representing one species with a disrupted area of distribution. Nevertheless, to solve this question new collections and, mainly, observations in natural conditions of growing, are needed.
Till then we prefer to consider these plants self-dependent species joined in one evolutional series.