假蒲公英猫儿菊 jia pu gong ying mao er ju

Herbs 15-60 cm tall, perennial, rosulate, with a taproot. Stems few to several, ascending to erect, simple or apically branched, leafless except for few to several bracts. Rosette leaves oblanceolate, (4-)8-15(-30) × 1-3(-7.5) cm, undivided or pinnatifid, base narrowed, margin sinuate-dentate, apex rounded to subacute. Synflorescence sparsely corymbiform, with few to several capitula. Capitula with rather many florets; peduncle long. Involucre cylindric to narrowly campanulate, 1-1.5 × 0.4-0.6 cm at anthesis, to 2 cm in fruit. Phyllaries minutely ciliolate at apex and ± hispid on midrib or glabrous; outer phyllaries lanceolate, bluntly tipped; inner phyllaries linear-lanceolate. Florets bright yellow, much exceeding involucre. Achene brown; body cylindric, 3-7 mm, ribbed, muricate; beak capillaceous, 7-10 mm but outer ones sometimes with a shorter beak. Pappus 0.9-1.3 cm, inner bristles plumose, outer bristles ± scabrid and shorter. Fl and fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 8*.

Meadows, trailsides, around mountain farms; 1700-3300 m. Naturalized in Taiwan and also present in Yunnan (Kunming, ?ephemeral) [native to N Africa and Europe].

Hypochaeris radicata has also been introduced to S and SE Africa, S and SE Asia, Australia, N India, Japan, North and South America, and Pacific islands (New Zealand).

This species was first recorded from Taiwan in 1974 (C. I Peng, Bot. Bull. Acad. Sin. 19: 84. 1978). In Yunnan, it was collected in Kunming in 2009 (J. W. Zhang 1001!); its status there is unknown. The description is based essentially on Fl. Taiwan (ed. 2, 4: 991. 1998).