Thank you Jim for so much more information than I had on my early to emerge peony seeds. You're right about the spelling, it was listed in the NARGS seedlist as "chamaeleon (x)", no quotes, and came from Georg Adam in Germany who hasn't listed his email. As to whether epigeal or hypogeal, I'm looking at very red furled small leaves on a stem that is 1cm high. Will it be 7 years before I'm lucky enough to have bloom? Lola in Brooklyn where it's very sunny despite predictions for heavy rains soon. On 3/1/07, Jim McKenney <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com> wrote: > > Lola mentioned a peony named 'Chameleon'. > > Although an IPNI search turned up nothing, one site gives this citation: > Paeonia × chameleon Troitsky (1930) ex Grossg > > That name is applied to " Wild hybrid between P. caucasica (P. mascula > triternata) and P. wittmanniana" > > Here's the link I saw: > > http://pivoine-hellebore.com/pivoines/… > > Several comments: I'm surprised at the spelling chameleon - that's an > Americanism, isn't it? I would have expected chamaeleon. Does anyone know > if > the authors of this name are Americans? > > Given the parentage, I am surprised that Lola is experiencing quick > germination. Lola, what exactly is happening? I'll bet a root tip is > emerging from the seed. If so, this seedling is likely to require a cold > period before it will produce foliage. > > The photos given at the site cited (note the dexterous use of > homophones-thank you) above really got me thinking. In one of those > fascinatingly serendipitous coincidences, I just got confirmation that > this > fall I will be receiving a long-desired Saunders hybrid peony named > 'Athena'. This hybrid bears some resemblance to this Paeonia × chameleon: > both have pinkish white flowers with a strong pinkish-red splash of color > at > the base of the petals. At first glance, they look a bit like tree peony > flowers. > > That they look a bit alike is no accident: 'Athena' was reposted to have > Paeonia macrophylla (wittmanniana) and P. mlokosewitschii in its > ancestry. > P. mlokosewitschii, P. macrophylla, P. wittmanniana and P. caucasica are > now > sometimes considered to be forms of P. daurica, so this old hybrid and > this > P. × chameleon must share many genetic similarities. > > In any case Lola, if you can flower them they should be lovely – and > incidentally, not interspecific hybrids at all but simply variants of > Paeonia daurica to those who accept that grouping. > > In doing some peony searching lately, I ran across a bit of information > which is new to me (but now I forget where I saw it - my apologies to the > source). If you had asked me recently about peony germination, I would > have > said that all germinate hypogeally. Not so: apparently Paeonia tenuifolia > and the North American Paeonia have epigeal germination. > > Life is beautiful – and complex! > > > Jim McKenney > jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com > Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the glowing red > petioles of Oxalis 'Garnet' are the most colorful thing in the protected > cold frame. > > My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ > > Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS > Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ > > Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/ > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >