灰果蒲公英 hui guo pu gong ying

Herbs 5-6 cm tall, delicate. Petiole narrow; leaf blade deep green, broadly linear, 3-5.5 × 0.6-0.9 cm, sparsely arachnoid, deeply lobed; lateral lobes 3-5 pairs, narrowly triangular, recurved, margin entire; interlobe margin entire; terminal lobe elongated sagittate. Scapes ± overtopping leaves, sparsely arachnoid but more densely arachnoid below capitulum. Capitulum ca. 2.5 cm wide. Involucre ± narrowly rounded to broadly obconic, 6-7 mm wide. Outer phyllaries 14-19, blackish green, linear-lanceolate, outermost ones 5-9 × 0.9-1.3 mm, unequal, and 1/3-2/3 as long as inner ones, loosely appressed, with a paler indistinct ca. 0.2 mm wide border, margin sparsely ciliate, apex attenuate and with a evident blackish 0.7-1 mm horn; inner phyllaries blackish, 1.1-1.2 cm. Ligules yellow; outer ligules flat, outside striped grayish purple; inner ligules with blackish teeth. Stigmas blackish. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene blackish brown, 3.3-3.7 × ca. 1 mm; body apically minutely spinulose, subabruptly narrowing into a subconic 1-1.1 mm cone; beak ca. 7 mm. Pappus yellowish white, 5-6 mm. Fl. summer. Agamosperm.

● Alpine grasslands; ca. 4000 m. W Sichuan.

We did not see material confirming reports of Taraxacum maurocarpum from Qinghai, Xizang, and Yunnan (FRPS 80(2): 70. 1999; Higher Pl. China 11: 785. 2005).