jasonpike1980's Favorites

I went out on a hike specifically to look for and learn how to distinguish Red-seeded Dandelion from Common Dandelion. Literally the first dandelion I encountered was this one. I can't tell the plants, leaves, or flowers apart.

I should add that the genetics and taxonomy of this set of species is entirely too complex to be handled with a traditional pair of species. The reproductive habits of the species are crazy and the result is a complete taxonomic muddle. There's a vast literature on this topic. The following paper has an interesting figure of the variation in leaf shape of Red-seeded Dandelion:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40793695_Taraxacum_sect_Erythrosperma_in_Moravia_Czech_Republic_Taxonomic_notes_and_the_distribution_of_previously_described_species