Citation: Weber ex Wiggers, Prim. Fl. Holsat. 56 (1780).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Modern Latin taraxacum, from the Persian tarkhashqun, dandelion.

Description:
Perennial herbs with a tap root; vestiture of minute non-glandular hairs; leaves basal, pinnatifid, flat, forming a rosette.

Capitula solitary, on straight hollow erect naked scapes, homogamous; involucre cylindrical, 2-seriate; outer bracts short, recurved to patent, herbaceous; inner bracts longer, erect, herbaceous with scarious margins, becoming reflexed in fruit; receptacle slightly convex, naked, pitted; florets all bisexual, fertile, ligulate; ligules truncate-elliptic, yellow; corolla tube puberulent; anthers tailed at the base, with small triangular apical appendages; style branches narrowly linear, subterete, obtuse with pubescent apices.

Achenes slightly compressed, fusiform to clavate, ribbed, muricate distally, with a short smooth apical cone contracted into a long filiform beak; pappus of numerous barbellate bristles, free, multiseriate, persistent.

Distribution:  Mostly native to the northern temperate zone, with a few south American species and 1 native to eastern Australia.

Biology: A genus of 40 morphologically distinct entities regarded as sections or as species in a broad sense; many of these contain numerous asexual microspecies.

Key to Species:

1. Achenes red-brown	T. erythrospermum 1.
1. Achenes grey-brown to a dull straw-colour	T. officinale 2.

Author: Not yet available