Taraxacum alpigenum Dzhanaeva (1967: 116)

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 : 247-249

12. Taraxacum alpigenum Dzhanaeva (1967: 116) .

Type: — KYRGYZSTAN. Kirg. SSR, oblast‘ Tian-Shanskaya , Rayon At-bashinskiy, khrebet Torugart, vostochnyy sklon [Kirgiz SSR, Tian-Shan Region, At-Bashi district, the Torugart Range, eastern slope], 4100 m, 1 Aug 1958, Ubukeeva & Filatova s.n. ( FRU, holotype, photos!). Lectotype, designated here: —Lower middle plant on the type sheet (encircled). Epitype, designated here: — KYRGYZSTAN. Kirgizia, montes Terskej Alatau, opp. Kočkorka: in valle Gol-Ukek (= Gol-Ukok) supra oppidum, 3600–3700 m, Jul 1988, R. Businský s.n .; cultivated in Průhonice as JŠ 3980, collected in 1990 ( PRA, no. det. 28132, epitype; isoepitype: PRA, no. det. 28133) .

Note: —Thanks to the help of Dr. Georgiy A. Lazkov of the Bishkek herbarium ( FRU), we obtained a detailed photographic documentation of Taraxacum types deposited there.The protologue of the name T. alpigenum (Dshanaeva 1967) includes a clear indication of the [holo]type, the specimen Ubukeeva & Filatova s.n., collected in the Torugart Range. The holotype sheet consists of eleven plants referable to three species of T. sect. Atrata. Also the descriptions (Dshanaeva 1965, 1967) combine characters of more than one taxon. We therefore restrict this name to the taxon depicted on Plate 43, fig. 2 (Dshanaeva 1965) represented by two plants on the type sheet (one encircled on the sheet, the other marked with a cross). This taxon, by coincidence, is also represented in our material from Middle Asia.As the lectotype material is at an early stage of flowering, we decided to select one of our plants with achenes as the epitype. It was Vainberg (1993) who pointed out that the type material of T. alpigenum is heterogeneous; she compiled the description from plants with achenes. However, the specimen examined by her, although relevant as an element of the original material (cited by Dshanaeva 1965, a specimen collected along Turgen River in the Kyrgyz part of the Terskey Alatau, Vykhodtsev s.n.) consists of plants not conspecific with T. alpigenum as defined by the lectotype.

Description: —Plants delicate, 6–11 cm tall. Petiole pale green to purplish, narrowly winged or unwinged; leaves mid-green, shallowly to deeply divided, pinnatilobed to pinnatisect, narrowly oblanceolate in outline, usually 4–8 × (0.6–) 0.8–1.3 (–1.8) cm, lateral segment 1–3, triangular, usually recurved, entire, interlobes entire, terminal segment usually triangular-sagittate, subobtuse. Scapes brownish to brownish purple, glabrous, ± overtopping leaves. Capitulum to 3 cm wide. Involucre 8–10 mm wide, rounded at base. Outer phyllaries dark, often grey-green to blackish green, 9–11 (13), slightly imbricate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, usually 5–7 (–8) × 2.5–3.5 mm, appressed, borders distinct, whitish-membranous, usually 0.4–0.7 mm wide, with a sharp to gradual transition into the black-green middle part, often suffused pinkish, margins glabrous, sometimes with 1–2 short obtuse teeth, apex blackish callose; inner phyllaries 12–16 mm long, blackish corniculate near apex. Ligules pale yellowish, outer ligules ± flat, faintly to clearly striped grey-pinkish outside, inner ligule teeth short, dirty yellow or purplish. Stigma yellowish green, with grey pubescence outside. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achenes (light greyish) stramineous-brown, ± fusiform, ca. 4.8–5.3 × 1.0– 1.1 mm, body smooth, only with a few minute tubercles above, cone not developed, body ± gradually narrowing into beak; beak ± thickened (ca. 0.2 mm), 4.5–5 mm long; pappus white, ca. 6 mm long.— Agamospermous.— Fig. 10A , 17B .

Distribution: —This species is confined to the eastern Kyrgyzstan ( Fig. 23 , only specimens seen have been mapped) and, in all likelihood, to the adjacent part of Xinjiang ( Ge et al. 2011).

Figures

FIGURE 10. Achenes of the members of T. sect. Atrata: A, T. alpigenum (PRA, no. det. 28132); B, T. atrochlorinum (PRA, #72); C, T. corvinum (PRA, #114/1); D, T. goloskokovii (PRA, #105/2); E, T. goloskokovii (LE, no. det. 6526); F, T. lilacinum (PRA, no. det. 28204). Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 17. A, T. pamiricum (PRA, no. det. 28214). B, T. alpigenum (PRA, no. det. 28132). Scale bar equals 3 cm.

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