Taraxacum stenoschistum

Taraxacum stenoschistum is a European apomictic microspecies of the dandelion aggregate (Taraxacum officinale s.l., section Ruderalia), described from northern and central Europe and reproducing asexually so that each microspecies represents a constant agamic clone. Like other section-Ruderalia dandelions it is a rosette-forming perennial herb 10–30 cm tall, with a stout, fleshy taproot exuding white latex and a basal rosette of deeply pinnatifid leaves; the segments are narrow and the terminal lobe relatively small, giving the leaf a distinctive narrow-segmented (the epithet stenoschistum means "narrowly split") appearance. Solitary bright-yellow capitula 3–4 cm across are borne on hollow, leafless scapes in spring and early summer. Cypselae are pale brown, ribbed and crowned with the familiar parachute pappus. It grows in meadows, lawns, roadsides and other anthropogenic grassland.