Taraxacum pingue Schischkin (1937: 3)

Kirschner, Jan, Štěpánek, Jan & Buryy, Vladimir V., 2025, Towards a revision of Taraxacum sect. Borealia (Compositae, Crepidinae) in Siberia and the continental Far East, with special reference to the dandelions of the Altai and Kamchatka, Phytotaxa 679 (1), pp. 1-147 : 44-47

14. Taraxacum pingue Schischkin (1937: 3)

Type:—[ Kazakhstan] Semipal. obl. [= Semipalatinsk Region], Zaisans. u. [= Zaisan District], Saur, pereval Taz [Taz Pass, ca. 47.27 N, 85.07 E], 21 July 1914 [= 2 August 1914 of the modern calendar], B. Schischkin & V. Genina s.n. (holo: LE, no.det. 6502) .

Etymology:—Fat, thick.

Plants ± robust, 5–10 cm tall. Petiole usually suffused pinkish, winged, base arachnoid.Leaves mid-green, ± oblanceolate to narrowly ovate, 4–8 × 1.0– 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 probably ± white, 3–4 cm wide. Involucre ca. 11–12 mm wide, base rounded. Outer phyllaries 13–19, ± loosely appressed, not imbricate, ovate-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, largest ones 5–11 × 2.0– 3.5 mm and ca 3/5 as long as inner ones, ± blackish green with a whitish-membranous border to 0.5 mm wide, margin sparsely ciliate to glabrous, apex with a conspicuous thick horn; inner phyllaries blackish, 13–19 mm, corniculate below apex. Ligules white (but see note below); outer ligules flat, outside striped light greyish purple. Stigmas blackish green. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene light stramineous-coloured brown, 4.5–4.8 × ca. 1 mm; body subsparsely spinulose above, subabruptly narrowing into a thick conical cone 0.7–0.8 mm long; beak 6.5–8.0 mm. Pappus ± white, ca. 8 mm long. – Agamospermous. – Fig. 27 .

Note:—We include T. pingue , a species described from the Kazakh-Chinese border, because it is relatively close geographically to the study area, and because it was reported to occur in the Tuva Republic ( Krasnikov 1997).

Diagnostic notes:—The quite numerous (13–19), relatively narrow outer phyllaries with large thick horns at the apex, and the white flower colour are diagnostic. The thick conical cone 0.7–0.8 mm long, a feature of the core of T. sect. Borealia, is also remarkable.

It should be added that there is no note on the flower colour on the labels of the type, and the only specimen was collected more than 20 years before the name publication, and in many old specimens the flower colour gets paler. However, B. K. Schischkin was one of the collectors, and we therefore accept the white flower colour as a proven fact .

Distribution:—Known with certainty from the type collection only; the type herbarium sheet bears a single plant with one head in full blossom, and another one with early fruits.

The group of species with very narrow, erect-patent to erect outer phyllaries and pinnatisect leaves

Figures

FIGURE 27. Taraxacum pingue. Details of flowering and nearly fruiting capitula (LE, no. det. 6502, holotype).