SPECIES DESCRIPTION
TARAXACUM HELLENICUM
Family and Genus:- See- COMPOSITAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Taraxacum. Disturber (from the Arabic name, tarakhshagog, or
talkhchakok, for a bitter herb) Namely dandelion.
Hellenicum (L) From Greece, Grecian.
General description:- A perennial herb growing to 10cm tall.
Scape:-
1) 1 or more, soft, purplish, sparsely covered by white soft hairs.
Leaves:-
1) In a basal rosette, oblong-lanceolate in outline.
2) Blade, divided up to the midrib into irregular lobes.
a) lobes, wide, lanceolate or triangular, sessile, glabrous, apex acute slightly
pointing backwards;
b) terminal lobe, larger, deltoid; usually smaller lobes appear among the main
lobes; midrib greenish to purplish; petiole purplish hardly visible.
Flowers:-
1) Involucre campanulate.
2) Phyllaries, in 2-3 rows.
a) inner, longer, erect, oblong lanceolate or linear, green, glabrous with a
yellowish membranous margin.
b) outer, ovate, purplish-green, often reflexed with a whitish membranous margin
and a blackish midrib.
3) Ray florets, many.
4) Ligules, oblong and narrow, yellow, 5-toothed at the apex, externally each ligule
bears a 3-veined purplish stripe.
a) teeth unequal.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes, pale brown .
2) Pappus, spherical with white hairs.
Key features:-
1) Leaf lobes, linear to narrowly triangular,
2) Stigmas, greenish.
3) Achenes, c. 4 mm.
Habitat:- On igneous or calcareous ground, stony slopes and roadsides from 600-
1375m alt.
Distribution:- Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece, From the Baikan
Peninsula to W & S Anatolia, Cypus and W Syria, maybe also in the W
Mediterranean region. Rare on Crete currently known from only a few locations.
Flowering time:- October-April.
Photos by:-
