Paeonia x kayae is a naturally occurring hybrid, between P. arietina and P. mascula ssp bodurii, growing in North Western Turkey. It is little known and until recently only one image of it could be found online. Whilst a selection of it was named, it is not easy to grow and therefore it has not been distributed further. We did receive an additional image of it from Mr. Kaya which we think might be interesting to show here:
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- Paeonia x kayae ‘Kaya’
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- Paeonia x kayae ‘Kaya’
Longer description:
Kaya E. & N. Özhatay. “New Geophytes from Turkey.” In: Chronica Horticulturae, vol 55, number 4, 2015, pp. 27-31.
Paeonia × kayae (N. Özhatay) (Ebruli Şakayık) Location: (NW Turkey) Çanakkale: Yenice, Kalkım, Aşağıçavuş village, Mursel district of Çanakkale province, 15.06.2005, E. Kaya 1703 (holotype ISTE 84 834)
Identification: Four Paeonia taxa occur in this region. P. mascula ssp arietina, P. mascula ssp bodurii, P. daurica, and P. peregrina. This new discovery is a natural hybrid between P. mascula ssp arietina (G. Anderson) Cullen & Heywood and P. mascula ssp bodurii Özhatay. It is similar to ssp bodurii, except that it is much bigger and has bicoloured flowers. It is allotetraploid, 2n=20. This new species is named after Erdal Kaya, who collected the specimens (Demirci et al., 2014).
Flowering time: March-April.
Habitat and altitude: Open forest, 1000-1100 m a.s.l.
Potential utilisation: A new cultivar has been released, named ‘Kaya’ and registered in 2011, from a single plant selection of the cultivated population of this natural hybrid species collected from Çanakkale. ‘Kaya’ has very attractive flowers. Furthermore, it has been used as maternal and paternal parents in the breeding program. In a collaborative study with Gazi University Faculty of Pharmacy, it was determined that this species has the highest phytochemical content among all of the species existing in Turkey’s flora. For these reasons, it is likely to be very important for both the ornamental and medicinal plant industries.
