Taxonomic history Franz Sieber described an almost hairless peony from Corsica in 1828 and named it
Paeonia corsica. In 1837
Giuseppe Moris described a form from Sardinia and Corsica that differed in having a covering of soft hairs on the underside of the leaflets and on the carpels, calling it
P. corallina var.
pubescens. Without appearing aware of Sieber's publication,
Ernest Cosson described the glabrous peony in 1850 as
P. corallina var.
leiocarpa, but he corrected this in 1887 by renaming it as
P. corallina var.
corsica. In the same publication he dealt with Moris's hairy form as a synonym of
P. corallina var.
russoi, thinking it was identical to
P. russoi described from
Sicily by
Antonino de Bivona-Bernardi in 1816, and followed
Webb (1838) by reducing the status of the taxon. This was supported by
Ernst Huth in 1891. In 1875,
Heinrich Moritz Willkomm thought
P. corsica a junior synonym of
P. corallina var.
cambessedesii (now
P. cambessedesii). In 1893,
Georges Rouy and
Julien Foucaud reduced the status of the hairless taxon to
P. corallina f.
corsica, and distinguished two additional forms with hairy carpels, f.
ovalifolia - with variable
indumentum on the leaflets - and f.
triternata - with consistently pubescent undersides of the leaflets -.
Adriano Fiori in 1898 regarded
P. corallina a subspecies of
P. mascula and thus named the taxon
P. mascula subsp.
corallina var.
corsica.
Max Gürke simplified this in 1903 to
P. mascula var.
corsica. In 1899
Antoine Legrand described a form with hairless carpels but hairy undersides of the leaflets and called it
P. russoi var.
reverchoni.
Claude Jordan described two new types from Corsica in 1903, one with leaflets with red veins and softly haired undersides, and hairy carpels, he called
P. revelieri, and one with hairless leaflets and softly haired carpels, he named
P. glabrescens.
John Isaac Briquet distinguished a further glabrous taxon,
P. corallina var.
pubescens f.
hypoleuca.
Ascherson and
Paul Graebner in 1923 regarded
P. corallina var.
leiocarpa and
P. cambessedesii as synonyms of
P. corallina var.
corsica.
F.C. Stern treated this taxon in 1946 as a synonym of
P. russoi var.
leiocarpa. Zangheri,
Sandro Pignatti and Schmitt thought
P. corsica synonymous to
P. coriacea in 1976, 1982 and 1997 respectively.
Dimitris Tzanoudakis distinguished in 1977 three subspecies of
P. mascula in Greece, among which
P. mascula subsp.
russoi from the Ionian islands and the corresponding mainland coastal area he regarded identical to Bivona's taxon. In 2001 Cesca found a form from Sardinia with purplish stems and long hairs on the leaflets' undersurfaces he regarded sufficiently different to create a new species,
P. morisii, and it was recognised by Passalaqua and Bernardo in 2004, who also extended the range of
P. mascula subsp.
russoi to include
Calabria. Most recent authors thought
P. mascula subsp.
russoi described from Sicily also is present on Sardina and Corsica.
Modern classification Specimens from Corsica, Sardinia and the Ionian isles were all shown to be diploids with ten chromosomes (2n=10), mostly have nine leaflets in the lower leaves, which often have rather hairy undersides with soft curved golden brown hairs of about 1½ mm (0.06 in) long on the carpels, although hairlessness also occurs. The sampled populations from Sicily and
Euboea however are all tetraploids (4n=20), mostly with ten to twenty leaflets in the basal leaves, not or sparsely hairy, while the light yellow hairs on the carpels are straight and rather bristly (or hispid) and about long. The peonies of Corsica, Sardinia, the Ionian isles and the adjoining mainland coast are therefore considered conspecific, and should be named
P. corsica, while the Sicilian, Calabrian and some of the Greek populations belong to
P. mascula. == Distribution and habitat ==