Brown's peony

Spasmodic menstrual cramps in a tense, irritable woman whose pain eases with warmth and relaxation, given from a few days before the period

Early-pregnancy cramping without bleeding, where a gentle uterine relaxant is wanted alongside proper obstetric assessment

Cramping nausea and a knotted stomach in an anxious patient, where a bitter, sour, cooling root settles both gut and nerves

Overview. The western peonies are the only members of the genus native to the New World. Brown's peony grows in sagebrush and open pine country from British Columbia through the Great Basin to the Sierra Nevada, and the California peony replaces it in the chaparral of southern California and northern Baja; both are low, fleshy, blue-green plants with nodding maroon spring flowers and a stout, deeply buried root, which is the medicine. Native Californian and Great Basin peoples used it for stomach and lung complaints, women's cramping and wounds, and Western herbalists treat it as the regional counterpart of the Chinese white peony.

Clinical Notes. Western peony root is a cramp remedy first. The Chumash used the California peony for dysmenorrhea and premenstrual distress, and that is still where it shines: sharp, spasmodic period pain in a tense, irritable woman, often with nausea.

Conservation. Slow-growing perennials whose root is the medicine; Paeonia californica is restricted to southern California and northern Baja California and is vulnerable to overharvest and habitat loss, so use cultivated or ethically wildcrafted root and never strip a stand.