Taraxacum smirnovii Ivanova (2011: 8)

Kirschner, Jan & Štěpánek, Jan, 2017, A revision of Taraxacum sect. Atrata, a dandelion group centred in the Middle Asia, and the problem of Taraxacum brevirostre, Phytotaxa 305 (4), pp. 225-261 : 255-256

18. Taraxacum smirnovii Ivanova (2011: 8) .

Type: — CHINA. Xinjiang, Quinghe County, the Mongolian Altai, SE. slope of Mt. Keshtau (3511 m), 46° 44‘ 32.2“ N to 46° 45‘ 17.8“ N / 90° 50‘ 39.1“ to 90° 50‘ 15.0“ E, 2800–3150 m, gravelly tundra, 31 Jul 2007, S. V. Smirnov et al., SRAE 20071048 ( ALTB, holotype, photographs seen; isotypes: LE, NS, PE) .

Description: —Plants small, 4–13 cm tall. Petioles ± short, narrow, unwinged, faintly purplish; leaves glabrous, linear-oblanceolate, 3–8 × 0.3–0.6 cm, undivided, entire or with very few short triangular teeth or lobules, terminal segment elongated, often with a pair of basal lobules. Scapes brownish green, glabrous, ± subequalling leaves. Capitulum ca. 1.5–2 cm wide. Involucre blackish green, ca. 7–9 mm wide, narrowly rounded at base. Outer phyllaries black-green, ca. 8–11, linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, usually (3.5–) 4.5–5 (–6) × ca. 1.5–2 (–2.2) mm, appressed, border whitish membranous, ca. 0.2 mm wide, with ± gradual transition into median part, margin glabrous, apex minutely corniculate to callose; inner phyllaries 10–12 mm long, dark green. Ligules pale yellow, outer ligules ± flat, striped greyish outside. Stigmas ± yellow. Anthers polliniferous. Achenes stramineous-brown, ca. 3.5–4 × 0.8–0.9 mm, with scattered minute spinules or tubercles above, very gradually narrowing into a not very distinctly developed broadly conical cone 0.5–0.7 mm long; beak 4–5 mm; pappus white, 4–5 mm long.

Taxonomic notes: —The holotype specimen (ALTB) clearly shows that T. smirnovii belongs to T. sect. Atrata, with the following sectionally important features: plants glabrous, achenes only minutely sparsely tuberculate or spinulose, cone not distinct and outer bracts narrow, dark, not imbricate. The only locality known is situated at the northernmost part of the section‘s geographical range ( Fig. 23 ; the section reaches the Mongolian Altai from the southwest and is represented there not only by T. smirnovii but also by other taxa, documented by a few specimens at UBA, see also Fig. 1 , and perhaps also by T. sangilense , see below.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Distribution range of Taraxacum sect. Atrata.

FIGURE 23. Distribution ranges of T. alpigenum (square), T. roseolum (triangle), T. sinotianschanicum (circle), T. smirnovii (hexagon), and T. subglaciale (octagon).