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Taraxacum gelertii Raunk., a dandelion

This microspecies either exhibits a variable leaf-shape, or it is ± heterophyllous, having more than one leaf-type. It occupies grassy areas of natural, semi-natural and man-made habitats including woodland margins, verges and lane banks; less frequently, it appears in 'weedy' habitats (Dudman & Richards 1997; Richards 2021). T. gelertii is described as frequent and widespread throughout B & I with the exception of Orkney and Shetland, but is more common in W Britain and E Ireland (Richards 2021).

It was first recorded in Fermanagh on 27 March 1975 on a south-facing roadside bank at Stratonagher Td, near Conagher Forest. It grows on the same warm, calcareous, roadside, earth bank site as T. oxoniense considered above, and T. duplidentifrons dealt with below. It was also recorded later the same day in a crevice in the limestone cliff at this venue, and vouchers for these records are deposited in BEL with Accession Numbers H5014 and H5015 for the bank, and H5017 for the cliff.

In addition, there is a further station for T. gelertii at Carrick Td, 2 km west of the Stratonagher site, where the plant was collected on the bank of a ditch at the side of a field on 29 March 1975. Again the record is supported by vouchers with the Accession Numbers H5036 and H5037 (two sheets). The Carrick record and its vouchers, plus two of the vouchers from Stratonagher Td (H5014 and H5015) were originally published as T. adamii Claire by Lambert & Hackney (1976). A.J. Richards corrected the nomenclature to this microspecies in the 1997 Dandelion Handbook.

The third Fermanagh station for this microspecies was a roadside bank at Roosky Td, 7 km NW of Enniskillen, collected on 29 March 1975, voucher H5033, det Hans Öllgaard (no date given).

Purely on the basis of hectad frequency plotted on the microspecies distribution maps in the Dandelion Handbook, T. gelertii is one of the four most frequently recorded dandelion segregates in Ireland, having a total of 30 squares (Map 30). The Field Handbook hectad map has closer to 60 mapped squares (Richards 2021), again emphasising the rapid pace of Taraxacum recording now taking place in Ireland.

References

Lambert & Hackney 1976; Field Handbook; Dandelion Handbook