Paeonia spontanea (Rehder) T. Hong & W. Z. Zhao, nom. illeg. (included P. jishanensis); P. suffruticosa Andrews var. jishanensis (T. Hong & W. Z. Zhao) Halda; P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea (Rehder) S. G. Haw & Lauener; P. suffruticosa var. spontanea Rehder.

Shrubs to 1.8 m tall. Roots attenuate toward tip. Turions present. Stems gray or gray-brown. Proximal leaves 2-ternate; leaflets ovate-orbicular to orbicular, 4--6 × 3.5--4.5 cm, villous along veins or throughout, deeply 3-lobed; lobes again lobed, acute to rounded at apex. Flowers solitary, terminal, single, 10--16 cm wide. Bracts 2 or 3, long elliptic, unequal. Sepals 4 or 5, green, broadly ovate, 2.5--5 × 1.8--2.5 cm, apex rounded. Petals 5--11, white, occasionally pinkish at base or margin, obovate, 4.5--7.2 × 4--6 cm, apex irregularly incised. Filaments pink or purple, white distally, 8--10 mm; anthers yellow, linear, 8--11 mm. Disc wholly enveloping carpels, red-purple, leathery, apex dentate. Carpels 5, densely tomentose. Stigmas red. Follicles oblong, densely brown-yellow tomentose. Fl. Apr--May, fr. Aug. 2n = 10*.

Hybrids between this species and Paeonia rockii, naturalized in Platycladus orientalis forests in Shaanxi (Yan’an Shi), were treated as P. ´ papaveracea Andrews (Bot. Repos. 7: t. 463. 1807; P. suffruticosa var. papaveracea (Andrews) Kerner; P. yananensis T. Hong & M. R. Li) by Hong and Pan (Nordic J. Bot. 19: 297. 1999), who believed them to have originated from wild individuals of P. jishanensis and cultivated P. rockii .

* Secondary deciduous broad-leaved forests, well-developed thickets, sometimes cultivated; 900--1700 m. N Henan (Jiyuan Xian), C Shaanxi (Huayin Xian, Tongchuan Shi), SW Shanxi (Jishan Xian, Yongji Xian).