Is this a Taraxacum taxon?

I am, let us say, about 90% certain that this is a Taraxacum! The species avoids me but have a remote idea that it could be dissectum. Can any one help?

 

It looks like a low-growing T. officianale to me. Where was it found?

 

It was growing on a low and usually moist embankment close to a vineyard and a small country road. Thanks again. I had originally thought it to be a Crepis bursifolia, but after some consideration, such as the sepals etc. I settled on Taraxacum.

 

The fastest diagnosis for Taraxacum vs. Crepis is to look at the flower stems. Taraxacum always bears a single flower on a single hollow stem; Crepis bears multiple flowers on a non-hollow, branched stem.

 

Thank you Iorax for your ID and advice.

 

This may not be helpful in an id, but it is an interesting article by the RHS about actually how many sp. of Taraxacum there are.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/News/The-diversity-of-dandelions

Does not give me confidence to id anything!!!

 

Thanks Robyn, I had a look but the RHS is not very helpful for me. Once a year I send a selection of plants for identification to Kew Gardens. Normally, I wait until I have some 20-30 plants to identify. The problem with sending or searching the RHS for plant identification of Italian growing genera and species proves fruitless, unless of course, as is the case with Taraxacum officinalis, the plant is also found in the British Isles. Thank you Robyn for writing.

 

This article is more about the species definition issue, very complicated problem. A single mutation in plants may cause a large morphological change, but would you call is a new species? A species must have an established population, more or less rigorous natural boundaries (distance from other species, different time, different habit, cross-sterility, any factor that makes cross-polination less probable). I doubt that 15 dandelion "species" on the same lawn have sufficient boundaries for cross-polination to make established isolated populations. It is just flexibility of the dandelion genome that creates such variability and survivability.

 

Dear Andrey, Thank you for your reponse. These genera of Asteraceae are a real headache. I realise now, that these genera and sp. are virtually impossible to identify without seeds. Now I have to photograph these when in seed. I have some 6 or 7 specimens to upload; Pilosella, Hieracium, hypochoeris, picris and crepis, (I think)!

 

And without a microscope. Some key details of the seeds and pappus is impossible to see with naked eye.