Tragopogon ruber, S. G. Gmelin

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 323

1. T. ruber S. G. Gmelin , Reise Russi. 2:198 (1774).

Glaucous perennial with a robust, cylindrical rootstock. Stems 8-25(-40) cm, floccose-lanate, glabrescent. Leaves linear-lanceolate, widened at base, with a whitish, scarious margin. Peduncles not inflated; involucral bracts 8-10, c. $ as long as ligules. Ligules lilac-purple. Achenes 2-2-5 cm, densely white-squamose, somewhat sulcate; beak 0-7-1 cm, gradually widened into body, not davate. Pappus c. 2-5 cm. Dry slopes and sandy wastes. S.E. Russia, W. Kazakhstan. Rs (E).

Plants from the eastern part of the European range, with slightly inflated peduncles and involucral bracts about as long as ligules, have been separated as T. kasahstanicus S. Nikitin, Not. Syst. (Leningrad) 7: 268 (1937). They perhaps merit recognition as a subspecies.