NOVON 9(1): 47. 1999.
Ge Xue-jun
South China Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510650, People’s Republic of China
Zhai Da-tong
Department of Geography, Normal College of Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030012, People’s Republic of China
Abstract. Taraxacum altune D. T. Zhai & Z. X. An is reduced to synonymy of Crepis minuta Kitamura.
The recently described Taraxacum altune (Zhai & An, 1995) was based on a flowering specimen collected by Y. H. Wu in 1988. During the revision of Taraxacum for Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, we examined additional specimens of the same species, including fruiting material. The achenes of this material are blackish, cylindric, narrowed toward the apex, beakless, smooth, and ribbed, and the scapes have a small leaf. In Taraxacum the leaves are all basal, and the achenes are fusiform to oblanceolate, often spinulose near the apex, usually slender-beaked, and clearly with a more or less swollen region between the beak and body. Therefore, plants of T. altune represent a species of Crepis L. Critical comparison of the type material of T. altune with Chinese species of Crepis (Tang, 1985) reveal that T. altune is conspecific with Crepis minuta Kitamura. The type of C. minuta was collected by Kawaguchi (SM 96895, now TNS) from Xizang (Tibet).
Crepis minuta Kitamura, Acta Phytotax. Geobot. XV: 70. 1953.
Taraxacum altune D. T. Zhai & Z. X. An, J. Aug. 1st Agri. College. 18(3): 1. 1995. Syn. nov. TYPE: China. Xinjiang: Qiemo, Y. H. Wu 2644 (HNWP).
Additional material examined. CHINA. Xizang: Nagarze, Qinghai-Xizang Exped. 74-2061 (KUN).
Literature Cited
Tang Y. C. 1985. Crepis L. In: Wu Cheng-yih (editor), Fl. Xizang 4: 958--961. Science Press. Beijing.
Zhai D. T. & An Z. X. 1995. New Species of Taraxacum from Xinjiang. J. Aug. 1st Agri. College. 18(3): 1--5.