瑞典蒲公英 rui dian pu gong ying

Herbs 10-20 cm tall. Petiole purplish, ± unwinged; leaf blade deep green, narrowly elliptic, usually 5-10 × 1.5-2.5 cm, sparsely arachnoid to subglabrous, deeply pinnatisect, midvein green or adaxially purplish and sparsely arachnoid; lateral lobes 3-5, triangular to narrowly triangular in outer leaves but in middle leaves narrowly triangular to linear-triangular, ± patent to slightly recurved, proximal margin ± entire, distal margin sigmoid to straight and entire or with several teeth or lobules near base; interlobes often with purplish brown margin, narrow, margin dentate and lobulate; terminal lobe ± triangular in outer leaves but 3-partite in middle ones, terminal segment elongated, narrow, often lingulate, with a few teeth or lobules at base, and apex acute. Scapes pinkish green but later purplish, ± equaling leaves, arachnoid. Capitulum 2.5-3 cm wide. Involucre 7-9 mm wide, base ± rounded. Outer phyllaries 10-15, lanceolate to narrowly so, 6.5-9 × 1-3.5 mm, ± patent to almost reflexed, abaxially deep green, adaxially pale glaucous green, border adaxially ± evident, whitish, and 0.1-0.2 mm wide, margin sparsely ciliate, apex usually corniculate; inner phyllaries 1.2-1.5 cm, often corniculate near apex. Ligules yellow; outer ligules flat, outside striped dark grayish green. Stigmas yellowish green. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene light brown to slightly reddish brown, 3.4-3.6 × 0.8-0.9 mm; body narrow, subdensely shortly spinulose above, subgradually narrowing into a thin cylindric 0.9-1 mm cone; beak 7-8 mm. Pappus slightly yellowish white, ca. 5 mm. Fl. spring. Agamosperm. 2n = 24.

Park grasslands, ruderal grasslands; 400-500 m. Liaoning [native to Europe].

This species is introduced from Europe, where the Taraxacum scanicum group consists of several closely related taxa (for review, see Vašut et al., Preslia 77: 197-210. 2005). The Chinese plant is in all respects, particularly in leaf shape, outer phyllaries, floret characters, and size and shape of achenes, almost identical with T. scanicum s.s., with the exception of the almost brown achenes (the European T. scanicum has achenes more reddish brown).