Plants 20-40 cm. Leaves usually 5-8 per shoot, primary divisions 3-6 × 2-5 cm, bases notably narrowed (stalklike), ultimate divisions mostly elliptic to obovate, apices usually obtuse to rounded, surfaces usually ± glaucous (at least abaxially). Flowers: petals maroon to bronze, margins yellowish or greenish, orbiculate, 8-13 mm, usually shorter than inner sepals; filaments 3-5 mm; anthers 2-4 mm. Follicles 2-4 cm. Seeds cylindric, ca. 11 mm. 2n = 10.

Flowering (Mar-)May-Jun(-Aug). Open, dry pine forests, sagebrush, mountain brush, aspen; 200-3000 m; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Reports of Paeonia brownii from Canada evidently stem from early confusion between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Vancouver, Washington (H. J. Scoggan 1978-1979, vol. 3). The type of P. brownii was collected on Mount Hood in Oregon, about 75 kilometers from Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver), Washington, which was a base for the collector, David Douglas.