反苞蒲公英 fan bao pu gong ying

Herbs 20-30 cm tall, robust. Petiole ± pale green to purplish, narrow; leaf blade pale green, oblanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, 12-15 × 2-2.5 cm, sparsely arachnoid, undivided or lobed; lateral lobes broadly triangular, remote, recurved-hamate; interlobes long, margin subentire or with 1-3 triangular teeth; terminal lobe elongated, apex subobtuse. Scapes brownish green, overtopping leaves, apically yellowish arachnoid. Capitulum 5-5.5 cm wide. Involucre 1.6-1.8 cm wide, base broadly rounded Outer phyllaries 20-24, ovate-lanceolate, outermost ones 13-16 × 4.5-5.5 mm and 3/5-4/5 as long as inner ones, unequal, ± patent to erect-patent, middle part greenish at base and apically blackish green, distinctly veined, border white, membranous, and ca. 0.2 mm wide but apically pink and ca. 0.5 mm wide, margin sparsely ciliate, apex blackish green, blunt, and corniculate below tip; inner phyllaries to 2 cm. Ligules yellow; outer ligules outside striped grayish; inner ligules with blackish apical teeth; floret tube sparsely puberulent. Stigmas blackish green. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains slightly irregular in size. Achene brown, 4.5-4.8 × ca. 1.2 mm; body densely spinulose and squamulose above, ± smooth to tuberculate below, ± abruptly narrowing into a subcylindric ca. 1 mm cone; beak 8-9 mm. Pappus yellowish white, ca. 9 mm. Fl. summer. Probably sexual.

● Subalpine meadows; 3100-3300 m. Qinghai, N Sichuan.

Taraxacum grypodon was also reported from E Xizang (FRPS 80(2): 42. 1999; Higher Pl. China 11: 777. 2005), but a revision of the material is required.

As there are no ripe achenes in the authentic material of Taraxacum grypodon, their description is compiled on the basis of Anonymous 8486 (PE, no. det. 22956), from Qinghai.