In botany , a section ( Latin : sectio ) is a taxonomic rank below the genus , but above the species . The subgenus , if present, is higher than the section, and the rank of series , if present, is below the section. Sections may in turn be divided into subsections .
3-514: Tree peony is the vernacular name for the section Moutan of the plant genus Paeonia , or one of the species or cultivars belonging to this section. It consists of shrubs that have perennial aerial woody stems. Other peonies do not have perennial woody stems, but their stems die back after the growing season, to emerge again from buds just below the surface early in the following year. Tree peonies have been in culture in China for millennia, and it
6-454: Is likely that hybrids came into being in gardens, where different wild tree peony species were planted closely together. They are used in China both for medicine and as an ornamental, particularly the hybrids called Paeonia suffruticosa . These hybrids in particular, but other tree peonies too, are called mǔdān ( 牡丹 ) in China. Two subsections are recognised within the section Moutan : Delavayana and Vaginatae . Species assigned to
9-406: The section Moutan are: Section (botany) Sections are typically used to help organise very large genera, which may have hundreds of species. A botanist wanting to distinguish groups of species may prefer to create a taxon at the rank of section or series to avoid making new combinations , i.e. many new binomial names for the species involved. Examples: This botany article
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