Taraxacum pseudoglabrum Dahlstedt (1930: 225)

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 : 100

40. Taraxacum pseudoglabrum Dahlstedt (1930: 225)

Type:—[ RUSSIA, Kamchatka] Kamtchatka, Kljutschevskaja volcano, 6 Aug 1927, R . Malaise ( S 13-6972 !, syntype; S 13-6975 !, syntype) .

Note:— We failed to locate the third, fruiting syntype, “Anauna R., also high up in the mts.”, 5 Sep 1926, R. Malaise 305 ( S, n. v.), and the achene description is derived from the protologue data and illustrations, and from KAM, no. det. 36777 .

Etymology:—Resembling T. glabrum .

Plants relatively slender, to 12–15 cm tall. Petiole light green, sometimes slightly suffused pinkish, ± glabrous, winged, tunic absent. Leaves ± light green, ± glabrous to subglabrous, most often 5–9 (–11.5) × 1–1.7 (–2) cm, often totally undivided and entire or indistinctly sinuate, spathulate to oblanceolate, apex often subobtuse; some leaves shallowly to deeply pinnatilobed, with 1–2 (3) pairs of short, flat triangular lobes or lobules with ± entire margins, or lobes triangular, subrecurved. Scapes brownish green, often suffused reddish, subglabrous to very sparsely arachnoid, overtopping leaves. Capitulum yellow, ca. 3.5 cm wide. Involucre dark, often blackish olivaceous-green, ca. 7–8 mm wide and subobconical to narrowly rounded at base. Outer phyllaries (13) 14–16 (19), appressed, imbricate, from ovate to ovate-lanceolate (apex elongated), ca. (3.8–) 4.0–6.0 (–6.5) × 1.8–2.2 (–2.7) mm, middle part blackish green, with a very gradual transition in a gradually less deep coloured, dark olivaceous-green zone and to an relatively broad but indistinct, ± membranous border ca. 0.5 mm wide (sometimes the black-green colour over most of the phyllary’s surface), margin probably ± glabrous, apex flat to black corniculate; inner phyllaries blackish olivaceous-green, very often coalescing, usually ca. 10–12 mm long, flat to callose. Outer ligules flat, often not striped, or faitly striped greyish-pinkish outside, teeth ± dirty yellow. Stigmas dark discoloured, almost blackish. Pollen present. Achenes reddish brown, ca. 4.5–4.8 × 1.0– 1.2 mm, body sparsely and shortly spinulose or tuberculate in upper 1/4, gradually narrowing into a conical cone 0.5–0.8 mm long, 0.4–0.5 mm thick at base; beak thin, ca. 10 mm long. – Fig. 68 .

Diagnostic notes:— Taraxacum pseudoglabrum is a remarkable species with a unique character combination: reddish, very sparsely and shortly spinulose/squamulose achenes with a short, conical cone, imbricate and broadly bordered outer phyllaries, and often undivided or shallowly lobed, frequently almost entire leaves with winged petioles. It is intermediate between Taraxacum sections Borealia and Arctica but winged petioles, the long beak, broadly bordered and often corniculate outer phyllaries support its inclusion in the former.

Distribution:—Known from the south-central Kamchatka (Klyuchevskaya Sopka and Anaun River), newly also from the Bystrinskiy Nature Park.

Specimens examined:—[ RUSSIA, Kamchatka] Central Kamchatka, Bystrinskiy District, vicinity of Esso village , Kozyrevskiy Khrebet , banks of upper Tupikin Klyuch , alpine zone, ca. 1120 m, V. V. Yakubov ( KAM, no. det. 36777) .

Figures

FIGURE 68. Taraxacum pseudoglabrum. A, achenes (KAM, no. det. 36777); B, a reproduced achene image from the protologue of T. pseudoglabrum (Dahlstedt 1930: 227, fig. 16c); C, leaf shape (KAM, no. det. 36777). Scale bars: 1 mm & 2 cm.