17. Taraxacum sect. Parvula Handel-Mazzetti, Monogr. Taraxacum. [xi]. 1907.
小花蒲公英组 xiao hua pu gong ying zu
Plants usually small to medium-sized. Petiole usually narrowly winged; leaf blade light grayish green or glaucous green, pinnatilobed to pinnatisect; lobes not numerous, triangular, simple, margin usually entire or sparsely denticulate. Involucre usually 7-10 mm wide, base subobconic to ± rounded. Outer phyllaries not numerous, usually 8-12(-20), pale green to light glaucous green with a narrow darker middle strip and paler surface, narrowly lanceolate to ± ovate, subimbricate, appressed to erect but sometimes some arcuate, border whitish and very narrow. Ligules yellow. Achene pale straw-colored brown, ochraceous, pale reddish straw-colored brown, or grayish to whitish straw-colored brown, 3.8-5.2 × 0.7-0.9(-1) mm; body sparsely spinulose above, usually very gradually narrowing into a subcylindric 0.8-1.4 mm cone; beak 6-8 mm, thin. Pappus white, 5-7 mm. Sexual or agamospermous.
About 20 species: centered in the Himalaya, mainly in India, Nepal, and Pakistan; five species (two endemic) in China.
The name Taraxacum indicum Handel-Mazzetti (Monogr. Taraxacum, 50. 1907) (see FRPS 80(2): 26. 1999), according to the majority of the syntypes, belongs to T. sect. Parvula. However, the heterogeneity of the syntypes and their unsatisfactory quality do not allow a safe interpretation. The name requires further detailed study and is not interpreted in the present treatment.
