10. Taraxacum sect. Qaisera Abedin, Pakistan J. Bot. 39: 1427. 2007.
乌兹别克斯坦蒲公英组 wu zi bie ke si tan pu gong ying zu
Plants medium-sized. Leaves light green to deep green, arachnoid, not thickened; petiole usually purplish or pinkish, usually broadly to narrowly winged but in inner leaves sometimes unwinged; leaf blade usually pinnatisect; lateral lobes usually triangular, subrecurved. Outer phyllaries usually 13-19, ovate, broadly ovate, or sometimes ovate-lanceolate, usually appressed, loosely appressed erect, or ± erect-patent, venation distinct or not clearly visible, border narrow to broad, apex usually flat or sometimes corniculate. Ligules yellow; ligule tube pubescent with straight hairs. Achene grayish straw-colored brown, 3.6-5 × 0.9-1.2 mm; body often with prominent lateral ridges (narrowly winged), densely shortly spinulose above, abruptly to almost gradually narrowing into a conic to subcylindric 0.4-0.8(-1.1) mm cone; beak usually 6-10 mm, thin. Pappus white or yellowish white.
About 35 species: centered in C Asia; 20 species (19 endemic) in China.
The sectional type, Taraxacum qaiseri Abedin from Pakistan, is based on a single, imperfectly prepared and preserved specimen, and it is difficult to interpret the section on this basis. The members of T. sect. Qaisera, as understood here, are superficially similar to those of T. sect. Taraxacum but have outer phyllaries very broad, usually ovate to broadly ovate, appressed to erect-patent, and sometimes even imbricate; petioles usually broadly winged; and ligule tube with straight hairs. Taraxacum sect. Qaisera is comprised of mostly agamospermous hybridogenous species of unknown parentage. We can hypothesize on the basis of morphological similarity that one of the parental taxa may belong to T. sect. Calanthodia.
Taraxacum ecornutum Kovalevskaja (Bot. Mater. Gerb. Inst. Bot. Akad. Nauk Uzbeksk. S.S.R. 17: 14. 1962) was reported to occur in China (FRPS 80(2): 72. 1999). It is a taxon undoubtedly belonging to T. sect. Qaisera, but we failed to find convincing material supporting this record.
Taraxacum pseudoalpinum Schischkin (Fl. Kazakhst. 9: 437, 571. 1966) and T. pseudoroseum Schischkin (Fl. URSS 29: 528, 744. 1964), described from C Tian Shan, belong to T. sect. Qaisera. They were reported as members of the Chinese flora (FRPS 80(2): 71-72. 1999), but we failed to find any specimens of these two taxa from China.
