Taraxacum parvulum - Himalayan Dandelion

Himalayan Dandelion is a small herb 5-10 cm tall. Flowering stems are brownish green, equaling leaves, cobweby. Flower-heads are 1.5-2.5 cm wide. Involucre is 6-8 mm wide, base broadly subconic to rounded. Outer phyllaries 8-10, pale grayish green, overlapping, lanceshaped or narrowly so, outermost ones 4.5-5.5 x 1.8-2.3 mm and 1/3-1/2 as long as inner ones. Inner phyllaries 1-1.2 cm long, tip flat. Florets are yellow; outer ligules outside faintly striped grayish pink. Stigmas are yellow to pale grayish yellow. Leaf-stalks are pale green to pinkish, narrow to narrowly winged; leaf blade pale grayish green, inverted-lanceshaped to broadly inverted-lanceshaped, 4-9 x 1.2-2 cm, almost hairless, pinnately lobed; lateral lobes in 1-3 pairs, triangular to triangular, recurved, margin entire; interlobes long, margin entire. End lobe is triangular-arrow shaped, margin entire, tip pointed. Seedpods are pale brownish orange, 3.8-4.6 x 0.8-0.9 mm. Pappus is white, 6-7 mm. Himalayan Dandelion is found in grassland slopes, pastures, river terraces, in Afghanistan, China, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Qinghai, Tibet, West Himalaya, at altitudes of 2000-4500 m.