Taraxacum albidum
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''Taraxacum albidum'' is a species of dandelion that grows in eastern Eurasia.Plants for a Future online database: Taraxacum albidum
/ref> A member of the Asteraceae, it is a perennial herbaceous plant native to southern Japan. It is sometimes mistaken for ''Taraxacum coreanum'', but ''T. coreanum'' grows wild chiefly in the Korean Peninsula and some parts of China. ''Taraxacum albidum'' is a Hybrid (biology), hybrid between ''T. coreanum'' and ''Taraxacum japonicum'' (Tatsuyoshi Morita, ''Moleculer phylodenetic analysis of polyoloid complex of East Asian Taraxacum'' [sic], 1996-1997).


Features

The deeply lobed leaves of this tap-rooted perennial plant form a basal rosette from which the long, slightly downy, unbranched hollow scapes (flower stalks) rise to around 40 cm (1 ft 4in). It blooms once a year, usually in spring (March to May) but sometimes in late autumn. Each scape bears a single flower head consisting of many small, white ray florets, opening from a rounded bud consisting of narrow green bracts. It is Polyploid, pentaploid (having five sets of chromosomes) and Apomixis, produces seeds asexually, like many other ''Taraxacum'' species. Namely, most of the florets make seeds without pollination; however, a few of them require pollination. For this reason, it can be hybridized with other species. After the flower closes, it later opens as the familiar spherical seedhead or "clock", as in other dandelions. The seedhead consists of many single-seeded fruits or achenes, each attached to a Pappus (flower structure), pappus of fine hairs that acts as a parachute to enable Seed dispersal#Types, wind dispersal of the seeds, sometimes over long distances. The seeds remain dormant until autumn. The leaves wither to avoid heat damage for several months of the summer. In autumn, new leaves emerge and continue Photosynthesis, photosynthesizing until the next summer.


References

Taraxacum, albidum Plants described in 1907 Flora of Japan Leaf vegetables {{Cichorieae-stub