Description
(true villosa but not villosa of horticulture)
This is 60 cm or so tall with green, hairy stems. The leaves are divided into two or three leaflets, then further cut into many segments. The upper leaf face is glabrous, whilst the lower face is glaucous and covered with many long flat hairs (villose). It is the latest of the officinalis group to flower, though there is overlap.
The flower varies from mid pink to darker pink, though the latter seems associated with younger flowers. The subspecies differs in its geographical range, in having 2-3 carpels, covered in short, thick, white hairs and the long white hairs on the lower leaf. The name is from Soldana (Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. Mus. Civico Storia Nat. Milano 133: 114 1992 publ. 1993.) and accepted by Kew. It is named in honour of Ernest Huth, author of a 19th C Paeonia monograph, who first accurately delineated this plant.
From the mountains of SE France and NW Italy our stock is traceable to the mountains above Causolls, near Grasse in S. France, where it was collected as seed in 1980. The plant in France is rare and protected, these are legitimate horticultural (seed) propagations.
