斑叶蒲公英 ban ye pu gong ying

Herbs 12-20 cm tall. Petiole green, sparsely arachnoid, narrowly winged; leaf blade deep green, ± broadly oblanceolate, 9-20 × (2-)3-6 cm, sparsely arachnoid, pinnatisect; lateral lobes 4-6 pairs, from a broadly triangular base narrowing into linear-triangular distal part or narrowly triangular, ± patent, proximal margin ± entire or dentate, distal margin usually conspicuously filiform dentate, apex acute; interlobes (and lobe bases) with conspicuous brownish purple spot, margin filiform dentate to lobulate; terminal lobe 3-partite, basal segments ± patent and apex acute, terminal segment triangular to narrowly triangular, margin with a few teeth at base or ± entire, and apex acute. Scapes brownish green, subequaling leaves, sparsely arachnoid to arachnoid. Capitulum 4.5-5.5 cm wide. Involucre 1.1-1.4 cm wide, base rounded. Outer phyllaries 12-15, mid-green with darker midvein and margin and apical part usually suffused purplish, ± not imbricate, ± broadly lanceolate to rarely narrowly lanceolate or ± ovate, outermost ones (8-)9-11 × (2.5-)3-4 mm, erect, with prominent venation, paler border not developed, margin glabrous, apex with 1-2.5 mm thick horn; inner phyllaries 1.6-1.9 cm, apex corniculate. Ligules yellow; outer ligules ± flat, outside striped blackish; inner ligule with ± yellow apical teeth. Stigmas dirty yellow to light grayish yellow. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene light (yellowish) straw-colored brown, (4-)4.1-4.4(-4.6) × 1.1-1.3 mm; body densely spinulose-squamulose throughout or only in upper ca. 1/2 and then other parts ± rugose, ± abruptly narrowing into a subconic (0.7-)0.8-0.9(-1) × 0.3-0.4 mm cone, spinules or squamules short; beak 8-9.5 mm, thin. Pappus yellowish white, 5-6 mm. Fl. spring. Agamosperm.

● Grasslands, roadsides; below 100-400 m. Jilin, Liaoning.

Taraxacum variegatum as treated in FRPS (80(2): 36. 1999, incl. T. erythropodium, here treated separately) is also reported from Beijing, Hebei, Heilongjiang, and Nei Mongol, but the material has not been revised.