Taraxacum hexhamense “Hexham Dandelion”
Section: Ruderalia
Endemic? Scattered through England and Wales north to Hexham, Northumberland, mostly on the west side of the country. Scarce and very localised. Shady places, walls by roads in woodland, cliffs, quarries etc. Behaves ecologically like a native species, but scattered, impermanent and nowhere common, and possibly introduced as an unrecognised Scandinavian species.
A rather tall species with erect broadly oblanceolate leaves of a clear pale green. Petioles a clear pink with rather broad green wings, but outer petioles paler, almost white. Midribs above pink, at least proximally. Leaf side-lobes 2-4, shallow, dentate, patent, often poorly differentiated in inner leaves. Leaf end-lobes obtuse to rounded, helmet-shaped on outer leaves, on inner leaves longer, often dentate and/or subdivided. Exterior bracts rather long and narrow, pale green above, tapered, recurved and becoming reflexed. Most likely to be confused with T. ekmanii or T. coartatum, but the leaves are a prettier colour, and the outer leaves lack the distinctive lobing of those species. The long tapered exterior bracts are distinctive.