Taraxacum caloschistum

Taraxacum caloschistum, the brilliant-stalked dandelion, is a perennial herb of the family Asteraceae belonging to the large and taxonomically complex section Ruderalia of the common dandelion aggregate (Taraxacum officinale agg.). It forms a crowded basal rosette of numerous, similar, narrowly lanceolate, multilobed mid-green leaves that are prostrate to ascending, with conspicuously brilliant-red, unwinged petioles and a red proximal midrib that give the plant its name. A solitary yellow ligulate flower head is borne on a hollow, leafless scape, and on ripening forms the familiar spherical clock of parachute-tailed achenes. Like other members of the aggregate it reproduces apomictically as a microspecies and the plant exudes milky latex when broken. It is a weedy plant of grassland, road verges, gardens and urban sites, recorded sparingly as an introduction in England, southern Scotland and South Wales.