Taraxacum (sect. Rhodocarpa) van Soest 1954
Creators: name: Štěpánek, Jan
name: Kirschner, Jan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Asterales
Asteraceae
Taraxacum

description: Taraxacum sect. Rhodocarpa van Soest (1954: 15)
Type:— Taraxacum rhodocarpum Dahlst.
Note:— Van Soest (1954: 16) explicitly included the name T. rhodocarpum in his new T. sect. Rhodocarpa and did not designate any type, and therefore Art. 10.8 applies (Turland et al. 2018).
= Taraxacum sect. Alpestria (van Soest 1966a: 35) van Soest (1966b: 459)
≡ Taraxacum subgroup Alpestria van Soest (1966a: 35)
Type:— Taraxacum reophilum van Soest (1959: 132, as “reopliclum”)
The heterogeneous nature of T. sect. Alpestria was mentioned elsewhere, with a more detailed discussion (Štěpánek et al. 2011, Štěpánek & Kirschner 2022). There are several species groups characterized morphologically, e.g. the group of T. alpestre (Tausch 1821: 564) Candolle (1838: 148), comprised of eight species around T. nigricans (Kitaibel in Schultes 1814: 405) Reichenbach (1831: 270), or the group of T. rhaeticum van Soest (1959: 134), or the group around T. reophilum. However, even when T. sect. Alpestria would be understood as a narrow group of several species around T. reophilum, T. rhodocarpum should be included in it.
The following description emphasizes features shared by the majority of the members of T. sect. Alpestria, but covers also morphological extremes.
Description:—Plants medium-sized to ± robust; plant base without tunic. Leaves erect, erect-patent to ± patent, most often subglabrous to glabrous, usually deeply dissected, often having a shape of those of T. officinale s. lat., petiole often winged, or unwinged, mid-vein without the longitudinally striate pattern. Capitulum yellow, usually deep yellow or golden yellow, often large; stigmas discoloured, pollen usually present. Involucre medium broad, rounded to obconical at base, pruinose or not so. Outer phyllaries most often 12–19, ± appressed, loosely appressed, erectpatent, arcuate-patent to arcuate recurved, not tightly appressed, nor reflexed, usually from narrowly lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, relatively short, most frequently (5–) 6–9 × 2–3.5 mm, surface usually ± evenly olivaceous-green, dark olivaceous-green, deep grey-green, often blackish-green when dry, most often with an abrupt transition in an inconspicuous, membranous or whitish-membranous border 0.1–0.3 mm wide, sometimes border absent or broader, margin glabrous or sparsely minutely ciliate, apex flat. Achenes light stramineous-brown, light yellowish brown, light greyish stramineous-brown, sometimes light brown to medium brown, or castaneous-brown or reddish brown, 3.5–5 × ca. 0.9–1.1 mm, achene body usually ± densely spinulose above, most often abruptly or subabruptly, seldom to gradually narrowing in a short subcylindrical to subconical, sometimes conical, cone usually 0.5–0.9 mm long, rarely longer; beak thin, persistent, (4.5–) 6–8 (–9) mm long, pappus ± white.
description: Published as part of Štěpánek, Jan & Kirschner, Jan, 2022, Taraxacum rhodocarpum and T. schroeterianum (Asteraceae, Crepidinae) are not synonyms, and T. sect. Rhodocarpa is the correct name for T. sect. Alpestria, pp. 295-300 in Phytotaxa 548 (2) on page 298, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.548.2.12, http://zenodo.org/record/6597648