尖角蒲公英 jian jiao pu gong ying

Herbs 5-10 cm tall. Petiole usually suffused pinkish, winged, base arachnoid; leaf blade mid-green, ± oblanceolate to narrowly ovate, 4-8 × 1-2.5 cm, sparsely arachnoid, undivided and dentate to remotely shallowly lobulate, midvein pale purplish but distally green; interlobes not developed; leaf apex subobtuse to acute. Scapes brownish green, subequaling leaves, arachnoid. Capitulum 3-4 cm wide. Involucre 1.1-1.5 cm wide, base rounded. Outer phyllaries 13-19, ± blackish green with a whitish border, not imbricate, ovate-lanceolate, largest ones 5-11 × 2-3.5 mm and ca. 3/5 as long as inner ones, ± loosely appressed, border membranous and to 0.5 mm wide, margin sparsely ciliate to glabrous, apex with a conspicuous thick horn; inner phyllaries blackish, 1.3-1.9 cm, corniculate below apex. Ligules white; outer ligules flat, outside striped grayish purple. Stigmas blackish green. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene light straw-colored brown, 4.5-4.8 × ca. 1 mm; body subsparsely spinulose above, subabruptly narrowing into a thick conic 0.7-0.8 mm cone; beak 6.5-8 mm. Pappus ± white, ca. 8 mm. Fl. summer. Agamosperm.

Alpine meadows, below glaciers; 2800-3000 m. NW Xinjiang (summit area of Saur Mountains) [NE Kazakhstan].

Reports of Taraxacum pingue from Hejing Xian and Taxkorgan Xian (FRPS 80(2): 46. 1999) require further study.