Natural dissection

While we have “double” peonies in our garden, a house on the corner of a busy residential intersection has a “single” peony that was stunning last Friday. Today I went back for a photo.

Unfortunately, the weekend wind-and-rain took its toll on the large flowers. Salvaging something from the “photo stop,” I thought the missing petals (or “guards” or “guard petals”) provided an interesting look into the internal structure of the flower. Compare to http://phytoimages.siu.edu/imgs/Cusman1/r/Paeoniaceae_Paeonia_caucasica_45047.html

“Peony” (Paeonia) is the only genus of plant in the Paeoniaceae family with nearly 150 identifiable species; genus page at PhytoImages: http://phytoimages.siu.edu/cgi-bin/dol/dol_terminal.pl?taxon_name=Paeonia&rank=genus

More about peonies » http://www.peonies.org/flower_types.html

One year ago (“Amtrak Superliner: Texas Eagle #21”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-05-20
Two years ago (“Comcast Building,” in Philadelphia): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-05-20

[Wendy]

Beautiful shot and colors! Sorry to hear about the wind and rain, but they are still so pretty!

[Danette Thompson]

Very pretty.

[Rick Schies]

Hopefully she will still survive a while