毛叶蒲公英 mao ye pu gong ying

Herbs to 8 cm tall, slender, delicate, tunic usually developed. Petiole pale green, densely arachnoid, unwinged but dilated at very base; leaf blade grayish green, linear to oblanceolate, 3-6 × 0.4-1.2 cm, densely arachnoid to lanate, sometimes glabrescent, pinnatipartite to pinnatisect; lateral lobes 3-5 pairs, narrowly oblong, 1.5-6 × 1-1.5 mm, patent, some subrecurved or pointing upward, margin entire; interlobes usually 2-4 × ca. 1 mm, margin entire but sometimes with a few minute teeth; terminal lobe 3-partite, margin entire, basal segments ± recurved, terminal segment to 16 × 1.5 mm and apex subacute to acute. Scapes ± green, shorter than leaves, arachnoid. Capitulum to 1.5 cm wide. Involucre narrow, 3-4 mm wide, base obconic. Outer phyllaries 8-13, grayish olivaceous green, subimbricate, lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate but outermost ones to ovate-lanceolate or triangular, outermost ones 4-6 × 2-3 mm and 1/3-1/2 as long as inner ones, ± appressed to loosely appressed, abaxially densely arachnoid, with a whitish membranous 0.2-0.5 mm wide border, apex with a distinct blackish horn to 1 mm; inner phyllaries usually 8 or 9, 8-10 × 1.5-2(-2.5) mm, abaxially arachnoid but later glabrescent, border pink, apex corniculate. Ligules yellow; outer ligules flat to canaliculate, outside striped dark; inner ligules with reddish or yellow apical teeth. Stigmas deep yellow. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene light grayish straw-colored brown, ± cylindric, 5.5-6.1 × ca. 1 mm, totally smooth or with almost indistinct sparse minute tubercles, cone not discernible; beak whitish, 0.5-1 mm. Pappus dirty yellowish white to white, 5-6 mm, easily breaking off. Fl. summer. Agamosperm.

Stony slopes in high mountains; 3500-4500 m. S Xizang [Afghanistan, India (Ladakh), Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan].

The problem surrounding the name Taraxacum brevirostre Handel-Mazzetti (Monogr. Taraxacum, 46. 1907) requires further study. In the literature, this name usually covers what is here called T. minutilobum, in accordance with the majority of original syntypes. The lectotype of this name comes from the Pamirs (Pamir region, 3900-4600 m, Alcock 17727, lectotype BM, no. det. 8426, fide Soest in K. H. Rechiner, Fl. Iranica 122: 234. 1977), and the type is intermediate between T. sect. Oligantha and T. sect. Atrata. The taxon represented by the lectotype is known only from the type collection and has not been found in China, although reported from Gansu, Qinghai, and Xizang (FRPS 80(2): 14. 1999).