''Taraxacum arcticum'', the arctic dandelion, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

belonging to the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. Its native range is

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

, Northern Europe, Northern Asia and the Northern

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

Description

''Taraxacum arcticum'' is a moderately long-lived perennial with a whitish

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...

and a rosette of five to eight green leaves, sometimes growing solitarily and sometimes somewhat matted. The leaves are long and wide, and have several deep lobes and a long triangular final lobe. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s grow direct from the rosette, each with a long pinkish stem that often curves downwards and has transverse wrinkles. Each flowering stem bears a single flower head consisting of multiple

florets This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary o ...

which are bisexual; the

ligules A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...

are white or creamy-white and have a purple streak on the underside. The brownish-black fruits have a number of shallow ridges and are capped by white

pappi In Asteraceae, the pappus is the modified calyx, the part of an individual floret, that surrounds the base of the corolla tube in flower. It functions as a wind-dispersal mechanism for the seeds. The term is sometimes used for similar s ...

which form parachutes.

Distribution and habitat

''Taraxacum arcticum'' mainly occurs in the arctic regions of northern Europe and Asia. Its range extends from northern Greenland and

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

to the

Chukchi Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; russian: Чуко́тский полуо́стров, ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form russian: Чуко́тка, ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the eastern ...

in northeastern Siberia. It grows in damp meadows and on heaths, on level or sloping land, often in positions with early snow protection or enriched with bird droppings. It grows in acid, neutral or alkaline soils.

Reproduction

In general, ''

Taraxacum ''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...

'' sets seed whether or not the flowers have been pollinated. In some species the pollen appears ripe and yellow, and in others it is green or blackish-green, but in both types, the pollen appears to be non-functional. In the case of the boreal and arctic species, only '' Taraxacum holmenianum'' is suspected of pollination; while ''T. arcticum'' is among the species that are thought not to rely on it, but the plant flowers prolifically and produces plenty of viable seed, which is widely dispersed by the wind. There is also limited local dispersal by fragmentation of the fleshy roots.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q11879799 arcticum Flora of Northern Europe Flora of North European Russia Flora of Siberia Flora of the Russian Far East Flora of Greenland Plants described in 1906