角苞蒲公英 jiao bao pu gong ying

Herbs 15-20 cm tall. Petiole pinkish, ± unwinged; leaf blade light green, narrowly oblanceolate, 7-14(-17) × 1.2-3 cm, sparsely arachnoid, pinnatilobed to pinnatisect, midvein pinkish; lateral lobes (3 or)4-7 pairs, usually hamate-recurved, 1.5-2 cm, narrow, margin apically sparsely, minutely, or coarsely dentate (to lobulate) or rarely entire; interlobes short, margin entire, dentate, or lobulate; terminal lobe helmet-shaped to triangular, 1.5-2 × 1.2-2.2 cm, margin usually entire. Scapes brownish green, ± equaling leaves, sparsely arachnoid at base but densely arachnoid below capitulum. Capitulum 3-4 cm wide. Involucre 5-7 mm wide, base narrowly rounded. Outer phyllaries 22-25, pale green, ± not imbricate, linear-lanceolate, outermost ones 7-8 × 1.2-1.8 mm and ca. 3/4 as long as inner ones, ± subappressed, with a paler 0.2-0.3 mm wide border, margin glabrous to sparsely ciliate, apex with a thin perpendicular ca. 5 mm horn; inner phyllaries 5-7 mm, with a thin horn below apex. Ligules (pale) yellow; outer ligules flat, outside striped purplish; inner ligules with purple teeth; floret tube outside pubescent. Stigmas dirty yellow to greenish. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene grayish straw-colored brown, 3.8-4.4 × 1-1.2 mm; body apically spinulose, ± gradually narrowing into a subconic ca. 1.2 mm cone; beak 6-7 mm. Pappus ± white, 5-6 mm. Fl. summer. Agamosperm.

● Disturbed mountain grasslands; 3000-3600 m. NW Sichuan.

Reports of Taraxacum stenoceras from SE Gansu, E and SE Qinghai, and Xizang (FRPS 80(2): 52. 1999; Higher Pl. China 11: 781. 2005) remain to be proven.