Herbs 10-18 cm tall, medium-sized. Petiole pale green to purple, unwinged; leaf blade vivid green with midvein pale green or proximally pinkish, narrowly oblanceolate to ± narrowly elliptic, 10-14 × 1.5-3 cm, sparsely arachnoid to ± glabrous, pinnatipartite to pinnatisect but sometimes undivided, margin remotely dentate; lateral lobes 3-5(or 6) pairs, triangular to narrowly triangular, patent to subrecurved, margin ± entire, apex subobtuse to obtuse; interlobes to 1 cm wide, margin ± entire or with a single tooth; terminal lobe triangular to helmet-shaped, margin entire, apex subacute. Scapes pale brownish green, subequaling leaves, sparsely arachnoid but sometimes apically densely arachnoid. Capitulum 3.5-4 cm wide. Involucre 1.2-1.5 cm wide, base broadly rounded to truncate. Outer phyllaries (11-)13-19, ± imbricate, ovate-lanceolate to broadly ovate, outermost ones 6-11 × 4-7 mm and 1/2-3/4 as long as inner ones, loosely appressed, venation not distinct, abaxially glabrous or sparsely arachnoid, middle part blackish green to dark green but blackish or black when dry, with a greenish white 0.1-0.3(-2.4) mm wide border or rarely unbordered, margin sparsely to densely ciliate, apex ± callose; inner phyllaries blackish green, 1.4-1.6 cm, abaxially sometimes arachnoid. Ligules yellow; outer ligules flat, 1.8-3.6 mm wide, outside striped grayish or dark gray; floret tube puberulent. Stigmas blackish. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains regular in size. Achene variable, straw-colored brown, dark brown, grayish brown, or almost black, 3.6-5.6 × 1.5-2 mm; body spinulose above, uppermost part squamulose, abruptly narrowing into a conic 0.4-0.7(-0.9) mm cone; beak 6.5-9 mm. Pappus brownish to yellowish white, 6-7.5 mm. Fl. summer. Sexual.

Taraxacum lugubre was also reported from Gansu, Qinghai, and Xizang (FRPS 80(2): 40. 1999; Higher Pl. China 11: 777. 2005), but a revision of the material is required.

● Alpine meadows and grasslands, open-ground slopes; 4000-4600 m. Sichuan.