管花蒲公英 guan hua pu gong ying

Herbs 10-20 cm tall. Petiole green or suffused pinkish, narrowly winged; leaf blade deep green to slightly grayish dark green, ± oblanceolate, 8-13 × 2.5-3.5 cm, subglabrous to sparsely arachnoid, pinnatifid to pinnatisect; lateral lobes 4-6, triangular to narrowly triangular, patent, margin entire or with a few minute teeth near base of distal side; interlobes short, ca. 5 mm wide, margin entire; terminal lobe triangular to 3-partite, short, margin entire, apex acute. Scapes brownish green, overtopping leaves, arachnoid below capitulum but later often glabrescent. Capitulum 2-3 cm wide. Involucre 0.9-1.1 cm wide, base subconic to ± narrowly rounded. Outer phyllaries 9-12, green with midvein or middle part blackish green, not imbricate, ovate to narrowly ovate, outermost ones 5-7.5 × 2.2-3 mm and 2/5-1/2 as long as inner ones, ± appressed, surface with a distinct venation, border paler, membranous-whitish green, and usually 0.4-0.6 mm wide, margin glabrous or sparsely ciliate, near apex corniculate or with a horn; inner phyllaries 1.4-1.7 cm, apex corniculate or with a horn. Ligules deep yellow; outer ligules completely tubular, not striped; inner ligules completely tubular, with darker apical teeth; ligule tube pubescent. Stigmas pale brownish yellow, not exserted. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene light grayish to pale brownish, 5.2-5.7 × ca. 1 mm; body ± smooth below, subdensely spinulose above, subgradually narrowing into a thin cylindric ca. 1 mm cone, spinules long, ± erect-patent, and acute; beak 8-10 mm. Pappus white, 7-8 mm. Fl. late spring. Agamosperm.

● Open woodlands with Populus davidiana, Betula mongolica, and Spiraea spp.; 800-1200 m. Nei Mongol.

In regards to structural differences, Taraxacum siphonanthum does not deviate from the pattern observed in other sections of the genus, and its recognition as a separate genus is not justified.

The names "Neo-taraxacum" and "N. siphonanthum" (Y. R. Ling & X. D. Sun, Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 21: 175-176. 2001), the latter intended as a new combination based on T. siphonanthum, were not validly published.