Paeonia mascula?

[Leena]

I have grown these plants from seeds as P.mascula ssp hellenica. I got three plants and obviously they are not ssp hellenica, but are they P.mascula? I have tried to grow P.mascula from seeds several times, and most of the plants turn out to be some kind of P.officinalis so I'm not sure what the true P.mascula is like (leaves and so on). These plants are quite similar to P.daurica, but maybe they are still P.mascula.. or could they be hybrid? They are of garden origin.
Two of the plants have magenta flowers and one has pinkish flowers. Carpels are very hairy.
Two of the plants are growing in shade, and are bigger, but one is growing in dry and full sun, and it is a smaller plant.
Pictures are from last May.

[fleurbleue]

This pink Paeonia (third picture) is beautiful !

[Pauli]

This is what I saw in Croatia - it should be mascula!

[Gail]

This is what I had as mascula in Suffolk (somewhat foolishly I didn't bring it with me)

[Leena]

This pink Paeonia (third picture) is beautiful !

Thank you Nicole, it is also my favourite of them.

Thank you Pauli and Gail! It is good to see what it looks like in the wild. Gail, you had a wonderful border of those peonies.
The leaves in Pauli's plant look more like in mine, though in my pink plant the leaves are maybe more round. I have a seedling of P.mascula ssp russoi which hasn't flowered yet and it has more shiny leaves like in Gail's picture.
My plants have all only two carpels, which are hairy like in Pauli's plant, though his has three carpels.

I wouldn't mind not knowing how to call my plants, except they produce seeds well and it would be good to know how to call them if I will send them to the exchange some year.

[Maggi Young]

This is what I had as mascula in Suffolk (somewhat foolishly I didn't bring it with me)

 Oooh!  That was a sad mistake, Gail! Impossible to move everything though, isn't it?

[Karaba]

It not easy to use a botanical key but it is sometime useful to identify and separate species of unknown origin and that could look similar :
https://www.peonysociety.eu/species/

officinalis belong to subsection Paeonia and mascula to Foliatae and are mainly seggragated by root shape and number of leaflet.

[Gail]

Oooh!  That was a sad mistake, Gail! Impossible to move everything though, isn't it?

I moved from 1.25 acres down to a small town-size garden so am having to be much more selective. Not that I am being very sensible about things and have just bought another 5 peonies to add to the 40-ish I really don't have space for...

Leena; I would be wary of using carpel number to distinguish species - despite what the books say they do vary, as evidenced by my P. emodi which had flowers with 1, 2 and 3 carpels on the same stem.

[Leena]

It not easy to use a botanical key but it is sometime useful to identify and separate species of unknown origin and that could look similar :
https://www.peonysociety.eu/species/
officinalis belong to subsection Paeonia and mascula to Foliatae and are mainly seggragated by root shape and number of leaflet.

Thank you, I will try that key later when the snow melts and plants start to grow! :)I think my plants are either P.mascula or some kind of P.daurica or hybrids.

Gail, thanks for that picture. You are right that carpels may not be very reliable feature.