Taraxacum hideoi ("Kibishirotanpopo")

Japanese name: キビシロタンポポ （吉備白蒲公英）
Scientific name: Taraxacum hideoi

[Overview]
A perennial about 30 cm tall, found along roadsides and in grassland in mountain villages.
Milky sap emerges when the stem or leaves are damaged.
The leaves are simple and basal, oblanceolate, moderately pinnately lobed or intricately deeply divided, and pale green.
A single white flower head 3.5–4 cm across is borne at the tip of a flower stalk rising erect from a leaf axil; some plants have pale yellow flowers.
The florets making up the flower head are all ligulate florets, numbering 100–150.
The pistil is tinged with black.
The involucre is pale green, and at flowering time it is 1.5–2 cm long; the outer involucral bracts are oblong to broadly ovate, half the length of the involucre, and do not curl back.
The outer involucral bracts have dense marginal hairs, and their margins often become membranous and tinged with red.
There are no horn-like projections, or if present they are small, 0.5 mm or less in length.
The fruit is a black to brown, spindle-shaped achene with a pappus, and it is carried by the wind.

[Notes]
The name comes from the fact that the type specimen was collected in Okayama (Kibi).

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