Bai Shao

Paeonia lactiflora is a herbaceous perennial in the Paeoniaceae, native to central and eastern Asia, including Siberia, Mongolia, northern China, Korea, and parts of Japan. It grows from a stout, fleshy rootstock to 50-70 cm tall, forming clumps of erect, hairless stems. The compound, biternate leaves are dark green above and paler beneath, with elliptic to lanceolate leaflets that often have reddish petioles. Solitary or few-clustered terminal flowers appear in late spring to early summer, 8-16 cm across, typically white to pale pink in the wild type with a boss of yellow stamens, though many cultivated forms are double and intensely coloured. The fruit is a group of leathery follicles containing several black, glossy seeds. It favours well-drained loamy soils on grassy slopes, open woodland and meadows, and is widely cultivated as an ornamental and as the source of the medicinal root known in Chinese medicine.