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Taraxacum palustre (Lyons) Symons, a dandelion

Fermanagh Occurence

Hackney states in the FNEI 3, which he principally edited, that previous records of this taxon, and indeed all members of the Section Palustria (H. Lindb.) Dahlst. in NE Ireland are errors for T. spectabile agg. Dahlst. and its allies. However, there are six records in the Fermanagh Flora Database that are claimed to be of T. palustre and although they are very probably now regarded as errors, they are listed here purely for the sake of Fermanagh Flora database completeness.

Previously, this microspecies was regarded by Richards (1972) as being a very rare taxon of restricted distribution, but subsequently it has proved very much more widespread than he imagined. The Dandelion Handbook now contains a map with records of T. palustre from 65 hectads, including some in Ireland, particularly from the Burren, Co Clare (H9) and the south Connemara regions (Map 16), although no records are shown for Co Fermanagh (H33). The Field Handbook hectad map for T. palustre (p. 51), again shows a total of just six Irish hectads for this taxon scattered south of Sligo, probably along the River Shannon, and also in Connemara, the Burren and Limerick – no records of it from anywhere in NI. According to his Field Handbook, Richards (2021) says, "T. palustre is distinguished from other British and Irish species by the broad outer bracts widest at the base with a wide, pale border and absence of pollen.". It has not been possible to link these records with any of the taxa in either the 1997 Dandelion Handbook or the 2021 Field Handbook.

All six Fermanagh T. palustre records are derived from the summer field visits of Meikle and his co-workers to Fermanagh in the period 1946-54. Like the current author (RSF) and RHN, this group of field botanists spent very little time examining or collecting dandelions, but considering they were using all or most of their annual holidays over an eight year period to record the botany of the VC almost from scratch, this is not too surprising. At the time, R.D. Meikle was a taxonomist at Kew and it is expected, but not certain, that if vouchers survive they would probably be found there. Many of their records have no dates. The details given here originate from the Revised Typescript Flora, prepared by R.D. Meikle. A few of the records have additional information available from a card index of this work supplied to RSF by Meikle.

The site details of their six records are: shore of Ross Lough, near Carr Bridge, 1951; N section of lakeshore on Corrard peninsula, Upper Lough Erne, 1954; Coolbeg shore, Upper Lough Erne; shore of Keenaghan Lough; wet hillside, Tappaghan Mountain, above Lack (ie possibly Stranahone Td); stream near Conerick Td, the outflow from Drumgay Lough.

References

FNEI 3; Richards 1972; Revised Typescript Flora; Field Handbook; Dandelion Handbook