台湾蒲公英 tai wan pu gong ying

Herbs 8-15 cm tall. Leaves numerous, prostrate to erect-patent; petiole narrow; leaf blade grayish green, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, 6-18 × 1-3 cm, almost glabrous, pinnatilobed to pinnatisect; lateral lobes 3-5 pairs, broadly triangular, often with obtuse broad tooth on apical margin; interlobes broad, margin entire; terminal lobe triangular to helmet-shaped, 1.5-3 × 1-2 cm, often pentagonal, apex rounded to subobtuse. Scapes brownish green, equaling to slightly overtopping leaves, scattered arachnoid. Capitulum ca. 3 cm wide. Involucre pale green, 6-8 mm wide, base ± rounded. Outer phyllaries 13-15, mid-green, ± imbricate, linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, outermost ones 4.5-6 × 0.8-1.5 mm and 1/3-2/5 as long as inner ones, loosely appressed, distinctly veined, border indistinct, paler green to membranous, and to 0.2 mm wide, margin ± glabrous, apex with a green or purplish thick horn to 1 mm; inner phyllaries 1.1-1.3 cm, apex corniculate. Ligules yellow; outer ligules outside striped blackish purple; inner ligules with blackish apical teeth. Stigmas pale green to ± yellow. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains regular in size. Achene brown, ca. 4 × 1-1.2 mm; body tuberculate throughout, apically tuberculate-squamulose, gradually narrowing into a subcylindric 0.8-1 mm cone; beak 7-10 mm. Pappus white, 4-5 mm. Fl. Mar-Apr. Sexual. 2n = 16*.

● Seashore dunes, open ruderal places; below 200 m. Taiwan.

This species was also reported from Liaoning (Kitagawa, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 47: 830-831. 1933), but the material belongs to other species.