Taraxacum oblongatum

Leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, 6–35 cm long, (1–)2.5–5.5 cm wide, olive-green, sparsely hairy to glabrous; lateral lobes in 2 or 3 pairs, markedly dimorphic: in early flowering plants deltoid, distal margins with a few acute teeth, proximal margins entire or with a few acute teeth, not incised to the midrib and therefore with broad interlobe areas; in later flowering plants hamate, the distal margins abruptly deflexed below an acute tooth, proximal margins entire or with a few acute teeth, not incised to the midrib and thus with broad interlobe areas; terminal lobe hemispherical in outline to triangular with an entire to sparsely toothed distal margin, the proximal margin with a single acute lobule near the midrib; petiole rose-purple, narrowly winged, midrib green. Scapes 7–14 cm long at anthesis, 12–41 cm long in fruit, white-woolly in bud, becoming sparsely white-woolly to glabrous at maturity except just below the capitula, green to pale red. Capitulum 3–3.5 cm diam., outer involucral bracts lanceolate to broad-lanceolate, 4–11 mm long, 2.5–3 mm wide, patent to recurved, often twisted sideways, narrowly white-bordered at the base, not callosed; innermost involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, 10–15 mm long, 1–3 mm wide, usually mildly callosed. Outer florets with flat to slightly incurved ligules exceeding the involucre by 5–10 mm; anthers with pollen; stigmas greenish-yellow. Achenes fusiform, c. 3 mm long, 1.25 mm wide, with flattened straight spines less than 0.3 mm long at the apex, smooth to the base, brown to purple; cone cylindrical, 0.5–0.8 mm long; beak 7–10 mm long. Pappus c. 6 mm long. Flowers and fruits mainly Sept.–Apr.