Taraxacum maculigerum

Taraxacum maculigerum is an apomictic microspecies within the Taraxacum officinale aggregate, one of the section Erythrosperma or Naevosa groups recognised by European batologists, distinguished by subtle vegetative and floral characters that separate it from sister microspecies. It is a perennial herb arising from a stout, fleshy, white-fleshed taproot full of milky latex. The basal rosette of leaves is oblanceolate in outline and characteristically marked with dark purplish-brown blotches along the midrib and lobes (the maculigerum epithet referring to these spots); the blades are pinnately lobed with retrorse, triangular lobes and a glabrous to slightly pubescent surface. A solitary, hollow scape 8 to 25 cm tall ends in a single ligulate capitulum of bright yellow ray florets 2 to 3.5 cm across, with the outer involucral bracts reflexed in dandelion fashion. The fruit is a ribbed, beaked cypsela with a white pappus. It grows in mesic grassland, meadows, lawns and other open swards across parts of Europe.