Pink Saturday - A shy blossom

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

This is Paeonia californica, the native peony of southern California and the Santa Monica Mountains.

If you're familiar with garden peonies, their large and showy blooms like giant crinolines, this flower is shy and understated in comparison. It naturally nods downward, so even to take the photo above, I had to hold its face up to the camera.


But looking at the shape of its burgeoning marble-shaped bud, the thick texture of its leaves, the golden boss of stamens that cluster around the center, you can see right away that it is related to its more showy relatives.


This plant grows in Red Rock Canyon Park, where we enjoy hiking. I've found other plants along trails that wind up through the canyons of iron oxide rich rocks of the Sespe Formation, rocks that some locals call "Malibu mauve" for its dusty rose color. Perhaps the pinky-purple rocks create the perfect habitat for this shy plant.

Red Rock Canyon Park

Of course, pinkness depends on your definition. This flower is sort of a ruddy brown russet color. And there's more pinkness to this plant than just the flower - it's leaves and stems are tinged with a kind of carmine flush.

The new shoots as they burst from the soil are brilliant magenta.

See how pretty, yet subtle this shy blossom is? There's an elegance here you find in native plants, that's absent in overblown and over hybridized flowers.

I've been meaning to collect seeds of this native peony to try to grow it on my west-facing hill. This year, I promise I'll do it.