Serratala gmelinii, Tausch

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 252

15. S. gmelinii Tausch , Flora (Regensb.) 11: 485 (1828).

Plant 60-100 cm, stout, erect, scabrid-pubescent, rarely subglabrous. Basal leaves deeply and somewhat irregularly pinnatifid, the lobes remotely and irregularly dentate; cauline leaves similar or the upper entire, absent from upper part of stem. Capitulum (15-)2O-25 x c. 20 mm, subglobose, solitary. Outer involucral bracts subglabrous, shining or with sparse tomentum, with very short, soft, deciduous mucro at apex; inner bracts linear-lanceolate, with apical appendage. Florets purplish. C. & S.E. Russia. Rs (C, E).

S. tanaitica Smirnov , Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou nov. ser., 49(1): 92 (1940), from S.E. Russia, appears closely related to 15, from which it is said to differ in its glabrous stem, rather regular, narrow leaf-lobes, smaller capitula and paler florets. It may perhaps also be related to 14(b).

S. donetzica Dubovik in Wissjul., Fl. RSS Ucr. 12: 560 (1965), from S.E. Russia and E. Ukraine, is said to be intermediate between 15 and S. tanaitica , differing from both in its shorter, densely pubescent stem and longer spines of the outer involucral bracts.