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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

25. Taraxacum, Linn

25. Taraxacum, Linn.

Scapigerous perennial herbs with milky juice. Leaves all. radical, entire or sinuate- or runcinate-pinnatifid. Heads solitary on leafless scapes, yellow, homogamous. Involucre campanulate or oblong; bracts herbaceous; inner in 1 series, equal, erect; outer in several series, smaller, often recurved. Receptacle flat, naked. Florets all ligulate. Anthers sagittate at the base, not tailed. Achenes oblong or fusiform, terete or angled or compressed, ribbed, muricate, attenuate at the base, above narrowed into a long and slender beak. Pappus - hairs copious, in many series,. simple, white.

A small genus, widely spread in the temperate regions of both hemispheres. The New Zealand species has the range of the genus.

page 387
1.T. officinale, Wigg. Prim. Fl. Holsat. 56.—Boot long, stout, black. Leaves very variable, 2–6 in. long, oblanceolate or linear - obovate or spathulate, sinuate - toothed or runcinate - pinnatifid, with broad triangular lobes pointing downwards, terminal lobe larger, usually rounded. Scapes 2–8 in. high. Head ⅓–1½ in. diam. Involucre campanulate; inner bracts linear, often thickened towards the tip; outer shorter and broader, erect or reflexed. Achenes narrow-obovoid, ribbed, the ribs muricate above the middle, beak long, equalling or exceeding the achene itself.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 152; Kirk, Students' Fl. 361. T. dens leonis, Desf. Fl. Atlant. ii. 228; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 165.

North and South Islands: Not uncommon throughout, ascending to 4000 ft. Dandelion. November–February.

A very variable plant. The large lowland forms, common in pastures or in rich cultivated soils, are probably introduced; but the small mountain state, with small leaves, slender scapes sometimes barely 2 in. high, and heads ⅓–¾ in. diam., is certainly indigenous, as it was collected by Banks and Solander.