Taraxacum leucoglossum dandelion. Murmansk region

At first glance, what could be more ordinary than a dandelion? However, the Taraxacum leucoglossum dandelion (or white-tongued dandelion) is a unique plant. It can only be found in the Murmansk region, on the shores of Turiy Cape in the White Sea, and nowhere else on Earth!

Unlike the common dandelions, its flowers are snow-white rather than yellow, and its leaves are whole and somewhat thick rather than dissected and thin. Incidentally, what we call a dandelion flower is actually a flower head, an inflorescence composed of small ray flowers. The leucoglossum dandelion blooms in June, and by the end of the month, its "parachutes" — greenish-grey seeds with a long white tuft — are dispersed by the wind. This dandelion settles on the slopes of coastal cliffs, in crevices, on narrow ledges, and on steep escarpments a short distance from the water.

The discovery history of this dandelion is quite intricate: it was discovered twice. On February 6, 1915, in the city of Helsinki, amateur botanist Magnus Brenner presented a report at a meeting of the Finnish Zoological and Botanical Society, stating: "Last summer, during a geological research trip to the Kola Peninsula in the Arkhangelsk province, my son Tord made a remarkable discovery, which I have the honor to present here," and he described a new species — the white-tongued dandelion (Taraxacum leucoglossum). He noted that his son had found only one plant of this species on the left bank of the Umba River estuary. Later, in the mid-20th century, botanist Nina Ivanovna Orlova from the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden discovered a dandelion with white flowers on Turiy Cape on the White Sea coast and described it as a new species for science — Turiy Cape dandelion (Taraxacum turiense). It was later determined that these plants were the same and had been described as new species for science twice, but the official name is the one that was first described.

This unique plant is listed in the Red Books of the Murmansk region and the Russian Federation. In the wild, the habitat of the dandelion on Turiy Cape is preserved by the Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve. In cultivation, it can be seen in the nurseries of the northernmost Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute named after N.A. Avrorin of the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (PABSI).

"For 93 years, a unique experiment has been conducted here to relocate plants to the Arctic and select plants for greening settlements, - says PABSI director Evgeny Borovichev. - Our nurseries preserve many rare species from different regions of the former Soviet Union and other countries, including this unique dandelion. It is believed that its closest relatives with white petals inhabit Central Asia."

The leucoglossum dandelion can be found not only at Turiy Cape in the Kandalaksha Reserve and in nurseries but also in numismatic collections. In 2022, the Bank of Russia issued two-ruble souvenir coins in the "Red Book" series, one of which featured our northern "blond" dandelion.