Taraxacum evittatum Dahlstedt (1930: 221)

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 : 110-111

45. Taraxacum evittatum Dahlstedt (1930: 221) Type:—[ RUSSIA, Kamchatka] Petropavlovsk [ Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy ], La Perouse monument, 16 Jun 1928, W. Eyerdam ( S 05 -

8656!, lectotype, designated here. – “ Kamtchatka, e semin. report. a cl. Malaise cult. in hortulo Stockholmiensi ”, 27 May 1930, [ R.

Malaise] (LE, no. det. 6030, syntype; K, no. det. 12278, syntype; GH 13007, syntype, photo!). Etymology:—Ligules not striped.

Plants relatively robust, 12–17 (–22) cm tall. Petiole narrowly winged or winged in early middle leaves, unwinged and elongated in later leaves, mainly in cultivated plants, purplish, tunic not developed. Leaves relatively light mid-green, glabrescent, narrowly oblanceolate in outline, ca. (5–) 6–10 (–16) × 1.5–2.5 (–3) cm, mostly undivided and shortly dentate in leaves of cultivated specimens, often shallowly pinnatilobed with 2–3 pairs short, flat deltoid lateral lobes, margins usually entire. Scapes brownish green, almost glabrous, with arachnoid hairs just below capitulum, overtopping leaves. Capitulum ± light yellow, ca. 4–5 cm wide. Involucre dark olivaceous-green, 8–9 mm wide and ± rounded at base. Outer phyllaries (10) 11–13 (15), appressed, subimbricate or not so, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 5– 7 × 2–3 mm, surface ± evenly black-green (sometimes indistinctly getting slightly paler towards margins), border not very distinct, whitish or membranous, ca. 0.1–0.2 mm wide, margin subglabrous, apex with blackish horns usually to 1.5 mm long; inner phyllaries ca. 13–15 mm long, often coalescing, dark olivaceous-green, ± corniculate. Outer ligules flat, unstriped or faintly striped greyish pink outside, teeth grey-pink, inner ligule teeth pinkish yellow. Stigmas light discoloured, light greenish. Pollen present, pollen grains irregular in size. Achenes light greyish stramineous-brown, ca. 4.2–4.5 × ca. 1.0 mm, body ± densely spinulose in upper 1/3, gradually narrownig into a thick, short, conical cone 0.5–0.6 mm long; beak thin 10–12 mm long, pappus white, ca 6.5 mm long. – Agamospermous. – Fig. 75 .

Diagnostic notes:—The herbarium material seen mainly consists of cultivated, rather luxuriant plants, and there is only a single specimen from the natural habitat (S 05-8656) that fully corresponds to the original description. The other specimen from the same locality (S 13-541) is not conspecific with the rest of the original material (ligules striped deep grey, leaves deeply divided, with narrowly triangular segments, see also Dahlstedt 1930: 222, fig. 12 b), and is excluded from our considerations.

Taraxacum evittatum is in many respects very close to T. kljutschevskoanum , and it is possible that the more numerous, narrower and darker, usually more broadly bordered outer phyllaries of the latter do not suffice for recognizing the two entities as separate taxa. They share characters of general habit and, in particular, almost unstriped outer ligules.

Distribution:—This species is known from Kamchatka. It grows on gravelly and mosaic stony slopes on shallow soils, often in terraces of rivers.

Specimens examined:— Kamchatka, east coast, Elizovskiy District, valley of Fal’shivaya River, NE. slope of a volcano, above geothermal power station, Mt. Skalistaya , 22 Aug 2000, O. A. Chernyagina ( KAM, no. det. 36927) . – Kamchatka, Bystrinskiy District, valley of Bystraya Kozyrevskaya River , 55°36.559’N, 158°03.351’E, 833 m, 20 Jul 2015, V. V. Buryy T102 (herb. V. V. Buryy, no. det. 36923) .

Figures

FIGURE 75. Taraxacum evittatum. Details of flower heads and involucres (A, GH 13007, scale bar = 10 mm; B, LE, no. det. 6030).