白边蒲公英 bai bian pu gong ying

Taraxacum mandshuricum Nakai ex Koidzumi.

Herbs 15-23 cm tall. Petiole pinkish to green with a green to pinkish midvein, arachnoid, winged in outer leaves but narrow in innermost ones; leaf blade deep green, broadly oblanceolate, 10-15 × 3-5 cm, ± arachnoid, pinnatilobed to pinnatisect; lateral lobes usually 3-5, short and broad in outer leaves, triangular to deltoid in middle ones, and linear-triangular in inner ones, ± patent to subrecurved, margin on proximal and distal sides usually dentate; interlobes broad and dentate-lobulate but narrow in inner leaves; terminal lobe broadly flat-triangular or reduced to 3 teeth at apex of almost undivided leaves, margin often minutely dentate, acute and on inner leaves dentate. Scapes brownish green, floccose-arachnoid but densely so below capitulum. Capitulum 3-4 cm wide. Involucre 1.1-1.2 cm wide, base rounded to slightly truncate. Outer phyllaries 11-16, slightly imbricate, ovate, outermost ones 5.5-8(-9) × 3-5 mm and 2/5-1/2 as long as inner ones, appressed, surface with visible but not conspicuous venation, middle part dark green and ca. 1 mm wide, with a ± evident whitish pale green wide border, margin villous-ciliate, flat or minutely corniculate near apex; inner phyllaries 1.4-1.7 cm, callose to flat near apex. Ligules yellow; outer ligules ± flat, outside broadly striped grayish green; inner ligules with grayish apical teeth; floret tube pubescent. Stigmas grayish green. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene pale grayish straw-colored brown, 3.9-4.1(-4.3) × 0.9-1 mm; body ± subsparsely spinulose above, gradually narrowing into a thin cylindric 0.6-0.7 mm cone; beak 0.9-1.1 cm. Pappus yellowish white, 7-8 mm. Fl. spring. Agamosperm.

Grasslands; ca. 300 m. Liaoning [N Korea].

Taraxacum albomarginatum is a rather marginal species in T. sect. Mongolica because of its thin, pale, and ± subsparsely spinulose achenes.