Paeonia suffruticosa Seeds | Peony Root Slices Mu Dan Pi Slices
LATIN NAME: Paeonia suffruticosa
COMMON NAME: Moutan Peony
Plant Profile
Paeonia suffruticosa, commonly known as Moutan Peony, is a deciduous shrub in the peony family. Moutan peony is great, scented flower of old garden, and wide, silky petals open in pink, red and white. It is a shrub of open, sunny, deep, rich, well-drained ground. The flowers pull in pollinating insects, which quietly widens its usefulness in the garden. Put simply, this is a rewarding species for anyone willing to give it a suitable spot.
Science & Biotechnology
The tree peony’s root bark (mu dan pi) is the medicinal part, quality-controlled in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia through paeonol and the monoterpene glycoside paeoniflorin shared with herbaceous peony. Paeonol shows anti-inflammatory, analgesic and neuroprotective activity in laboratory models, including inhibition of NF-kB signalling, which underwrites the bark’s classical use for ‘clearing heat and cooling the blood’. Gardeners know the same plant for its huge spring blooms; Chinese drug gardens have harvested the roots of four- to five-year-old plants for centuries, so beauty and pharmacy are not mutually exclusive here.
Seed science, comparative botany and horticultural selection all touch on Paeonia suffruticosa, a representative of the peony family with clear practical value. Modern propagation practice has made this species straightforward to raise by ordinary good methods.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Moutan Peony earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. Moutan peony is a fine, historic shrub of old garden. It has been written up in horticultural and botanical papers for silky flowers and the very long history, and it is a fine, long-lived shrub of the open, sunny, deep, rich, well-drained garden. Moutan peony is one of grand tree peonies of old garden, and root bark has a long record in old practice of the East. Getting it going is easy; keeping it going is easier still.
Peony roots, Bai Shao and Chi Shao, are among the most-used herbs in Chinese medicine, nourishing blood and relaxing tension in countless classical formulas; paeoniflorin, the signature compound, is studied for anti-inflammatory and neuromodulatory effects. The flowers remain the garden’s most opulent bloom.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed of Moutan Peony under ordinary good conditions. Fill a pot with a light seed compost, sow evenly on the surface, cover thinly and stand it somewhere warm, bright and evenly moist. Grow the youngsters on steadily in pots until well rooted, then move them to their final positions.
Our Take
Among the Paeonia group, it is one of the more distinctive species in cultivation. Its wants are few — a sunny spot, soil that drains, and time to settle in.
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