Taraxacum exsertum “Pale-green Dandelion”
Introduced. A rather scarce adventive which has been recorded from much of Britain north to central Scotland. Waste ground, gardens, verges etc.. Has been recorded very rarely in Britain in the twenty-first century; it may have become scarcer, but it may also have been overrecorded previously in lieu of T. leptodon, T. acroglossum, T. exsertum and others. This is a western European species not known in most of Scandinavia.
A medium-sized dandelion with narrowly lanceolate ascending rather flaccid light green almost glabrous leaves. Petioles narrowly winged, white on outer leaves, bright pink on inners. Leaf side-lobes 4-5, recurved, the distal ones entire, sharply acute. Leaf end-lobe entire, contracted, the distal portion very acute and somewhat extenuate. Scapes hairy. Exterior bracts strongly recurved, somewhat sigmoid in posture, light green above and sometimes becoming suffused purple with age, clearly bordered, rather narrow. Inner bracts with a purple terminal callus. Ligule stripes grey-purple, becoming darker near apex. Stigmas yellow in the fresh condition, often drying almost yellow.
- exsertum has a leaf-shape seen in several other species (above), and is best diagnosed with care by pale green leaves, bordered bracts and calloused inner bracts.