CAPITULUM: The International Compositae Alliance Newsletter

Taraxacum F.H.Wigg. (Cichorieae) in Australia: The story of systematic research on the island continent in the last four decades

Robert F. Parsons

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53875/capitulum.03.2.02

Keywords: electronic floras, historical taxonomy, naturalized weeds, Taraxcum sect. Australasica

Abstract

The first Taraxacum species to be described from Australia was the native T. cygnorum, published by Handel-Mazzetti in 1907. After this, there was no botanical publication on Taraxacum in Australia, either native or alien, until the second and so far only other known native, T. aristum, was described in 1964. No further Taraxacum work occurred until 1983, when N. H. Scarlett began his nearly 40 years of intensive work on both native and alien Taraxacum species. He made the first records of T. cygnorum since 1907 and raised progeny of both native species for the first time. This, and other detailed work, was indispensable to the description of the new Taraxacum sect. Australasica Kirschner, Scarlett & Stepanek. Regarding naturalized plants, Scarlett was eventually able to identify 29 species from five different sections, but scores more species remain to be thus recognized. This whole episode demonstrates how the progress of plant systematics research can be highly piecemeal and intermittent when it involves a large, difficult genus in a botanically under-resourced country.