Paeonia lactiflora, also Chinese Peony, and common garden peony is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Paeoniaceae, native to central and eastern Asia from eastern Tibet across northern China to eastern Siberia.
The leaves of many cultivars are high in oleanolic and ursolic acid.
Woods, grasslands; 400--2300 m. S Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, S Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Far East, Siberia)].
Herbs perennial, to 70 cm tall. Roots thick, attenuate toward tip, to 1.3 cm in diam. Stems glabrous. Proximal leaves 2-ternate; all leaflets decurrent at base, terminal ones often 2- or 3-segmented; leaflets and segments up to 15, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 4.5--16 × 1.5--4.8 cm, sparsely pubescent abaxially, bristly along veins adaxially, margin white cartilaginous denticulate, apex acuminate.