Taraxacum stenoglossum

A perennial herb of the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) aggregate, forming a basal rosette of glabrous to sparsely hairy leaves arising directly from a thick, fleshy taproot. The leaves are oblanceolate in outline and deeply pinnatifid, with backward-pointing (runcinate) lobes and a narrowly winged petiole. Solitary flower heads are borne on hollow, leafless scapes that exude a milky white latex when broken. Each head is a composite of numerous bright yellow ligulate florets subtended by reflexed outer bracts. The fruit is a ribbed achene tapering into a slender beak that bears a parachute-like pappus of fine white bristles, dispersed by wind. As a member of the apomictic T. stenoglossum microspecies group, plants reproduce largely asexually, producing genetically uniform offspring. It occupies meadows, grasslands, roadsides and disturbed ground across temperate Eurasia.