Taraxacum malaisei Dahlstedt (1930: 223)

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 : 118-119

50. Taraxacum malaisei Dahlstedt (1930: 223)

Type:—[ RUSSIA, Kamchatka] “Grown up in Stockholm from seeds collected in Kamtchatka ”, 1929, R. Malaise ( S 13-4876 !, syntype; S 13-4874 !, syntype; S 13-4871 !, syntype; S 13-4873 !, syntype; S 13-4876 !, syntype; LE!, syntype) .

Etymology:—Named in honour of René Edmond Malaise (1892–1978), a Swedish entomologist, also collecting plants for E. Hultén.

Plants relatively tall, to ca. 20 cm. Petiole winged in early middle leaves, ± unwinged in late (cultivated) leaves, subglabrous, often ± purplish. Early middle leaves slightly greyish mid-green, usually with purplish mid-vein, subglabrous, with scattered hairs along mid-vein beneath, narrowly oblanceolate, ca. 7–12 × 1–2 cm, remotely sinuate-lobulate or with flat, short deltoid lobes, later leaves elongated, to 15–25 × 3–4 cm, undivided, remotely dentate or irregularly denticulate, apex subacute. Scapes brownish green, subglabrous, usually sparsely arachnoid below capitulum, overtopping leaves. Capitulum yellow, ca. 2.5–3.0 cm wide. Involucre dark grey-green, ca. 7–8 mm wide and narrowly rounded to ± subobconical at base. Outer phyllaries usually (9–) 11–15 (–17), appressed, subimbricate, usually ± acuminate, broadly ovate to ovate, ca. 6–8 (–10) × (3.2–) 4.0–5.0 (–7.0), with a black-green middle line ca. 0.5 mm wide, surface otherwise dark grey-green, gradually getting paler towards margins and therefore with a paler zone to ca. 1.5–2.0 mm wide, border not distinct, usually membranous or whitish-membranous, ca. 0.2–0.4 mm wide, margin sparsely ciliate distally, apex with a thick, robust black-green and purplish horn usually 1–3 mm long; inner phyllaries grey-green, ca. 12–14 mm long, with short thick horns. Outer ligules ± flat, striped greenish grey outside, teeth dark grey, inner ligule teeth grey. Stigmas deep discoloured. Pollen absent. Achenes light greyish stramineous-brown, ca. 4.3–4.7 × 1.0– 1.1 mm, body ± densely spinulose in upper 1/3, subgradually narrowing in a subconical cone ca. 0.8–1.0 mm long; beak thin, ca. 10 mm long, pappus yellowish white, ca. 6.5 mm long. – Agamospermous. – Fig. 81 .

Diagnostic notes:—The original material consists of rather luxuriant cultivated plants, occasionally also with shorter, early middle leaves, but always with enormously elongated later leaves developing during flowering in cultivation. Also the outer phyllaries are larger than in plants from the wild. The ovate, dark grey, broadly but not conspicuously bordered outer phyllaries, and the absence of pollen are diagnostic.

Distribution:—Known from Kamchatka (without any locality specification).

Figures

FIGURE 81. Taraxacum malaisei. A detail of luxuriant involucre of a cultivated plant (S 13-4873). Scale bar = 5 mm.