Taraxacum latilobum
in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 7: 146. 1838.
Plants 9–75 cm; taproots seldom branched. Stems 1–7+, erect to ascending, ± purplish, glabrate, sometimes ± sparsely villous distally. Leaves 10+, erect to patent; petioles ± narrowly winged; blades broadly oblanceolate to narrowly obovate (often runcinate), 15–47.5 × 2.5–9 cm, bases attenuate, margins usually shallowly lobed to sometimes lacerate (mostly proximally), lobes retrorse or straight, broadly deltate to triangular, sometimes antrorsely curved apically, acute to acuminate, teeth 5–7 on lobes and in sinuses, irregular, triangular or sometimes lanceolate, terminals broader than laterals, apices obtuse to bluntly short-caudate or -acuminate (rarely acute), faces glabrous or glabrate to sparsely pilose or villous. Calyculi of ca. 18, reflexed to recurved, ovate to broadly lanceolate bractlets in 3 series, 8–11 × 2–5 mm, margins narrowly scarious, sometimes proximally more widely so, apices acuminate, hornless, ± scarious-erose, tips often purplish and blackish. Involucres dark green, often purplish-tinged, campanulate, (13–)15–23 mm. Phyllaries 14–18 in 2 series, lanceolate to linear (outer) or ovate to lance-ovate (inner), 1.2–4 mm wide, scarious, narrowly (outer, distal part of inner) or widely (proximal part of inner), apices long-acuminate, hornless, scarious, erose, hyaline, purplish-grayish. Florets ca. 150; corollas yellow (outer dark gray striped abaxially, also purplish), 13–17 × 1–1.3 mm. Cypselae olive-tan to tan, bodies oblanceoloid, 2.8–3.8 mm, cones terete, 0.9–1 mm, beaks slender, 8–12 mm, ribs 5, wide (with 2–3 rows of tubercles or spines), faces proximally tuberculate, muricate in distal 1/3–1/2, distalmost spines sometimes very sharp, fused in pairs and flattened; pappi white to creamy, 6.5–7 mm.
Phenology: Flowering summer.
Habitat: Seaside calcareous slopes and grassy taluses or clifftops
Elevation: 0–30 m
Distribution
Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), Que., Maine.
Discussion
Taraxacum latilobum is known only from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and adjacent areas.
Selected References
None.