38. Krigia Schreb.
(dwarf dandelion)
Plants annual or
perennial herbs, taprooted or fibrous-rooted (producing tubers in K.
dandelion). Latex white. Stems erect or ascending, sometimes loosely
ascending from a spreading base, finely ridged, glabrous or hairy. Leaves all
basal or basal and alternate, glabrous or hairy, sessile or short- to
long-petiolate. Leaf blades entire or pinnately lobed, linear to lanceolate,
ovate, or oblong-ovate in outline, the margins entire or with widely spaced,
broadly triangular, spreading teeth, with 1 main vein visible and sometimes
also a faint network of anastomosing secondary veins. Inflorescences of
solitary flowers at the stem or branch tips or open terminal clusters, rarely
appearing as small panicles in K. biflora. Involucre not or only
slightly becoming elongated as the fruits mature, cup-shaped or somewhat
bell-shaped, the bracts in 1 or 2 series, all similar in size and shape (no
shorter, outer bracts present), narrowly lanceolate to oblong-ovate, often
purplish-tinged, the margins sometimes thin and pale, the tip ascending at flowering.
Receptacle naked, usually minutely pitted at the base of each floret. Ligulate
florets 6–60 per head. Corollas yellow to orange. Pappus of 5 to numerous
bristles and/or 5 or (8–)10 scales or absent. Fruits variously shaped, not
flattened, sometimes 5-angled in cross-section, often somewhat oblique at the
base, with 10–20 fine, longitudinal nerves or ridges, usually also finely
cross-wrinkled, glabrous, reddish brown to dark brown, not beaked, the pappus
attached to a sometimes slightly expanded tip. Seven species, U.S. and adjacent
Canada, Mexico.