新疆蒲公英 xin jiang pu gong ying

Herbs 15-35 cm tall. Petiole pinkish green, narrow; leaf blade pale green to mid-green, ± oblanceolate, 10-15 × 2.5-3.5 cm, sparsely arachnoid but later glabrescent, margin subentire to shallowly lobed; lateral lobes 2-5, ± flat triangular, ± recurved, distal margin straight and entire or dentate; interlobes indistinct; terminal lobe not clearly developed, broadly triangular, apex ± acute. Scapes brownish green, ± overtopping leaves, subglabrous. Involucre 9-10 mm wide, base rounded. Outer phyllaries 13-16, dark green with a broad paler border, subimbricate, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, outermost ones 7-9 × 3-4 mm and ca. 1/2 as long as inner ones, ± appressed, border 0.5-1 mm, margin sparsely ciliate, flat and not corniculate below apex; inner phyllaries 1.3-1.8 cm, apically flat. Ligules (?pale) yellow; outer ligules flat, outside striped dark; inner ligules with purplish long teeth. Stigmas dark to blackish green. Achene grayish straw-colored brown, 4.2-4.7 × 1-1.1 mm; body ± smooth below, apically subsparsely spinulose with thin acute spinules, ± subabruptly narrowing into a conic 0.7-0.9 mm cone; beak ca. 6 mm. Pappus yellowish white, ca. 5 mm. Fl. summer. Agamosperm.

● Mountain slopes; 2000-2400 m. W Xinjiang (Tian Shan).

Taraxacum potaninii is known from the type specimen only. The locality given on the type label differs from that in the protologue, but the description fully matches the material.