A survey of the oreophytic species of Taraxacum in the Carpathians reveals a very limited overlap with the flora of the Alps

The genus Taraxacum in the subalpine and alpine areas in the Carpathians (Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, montane habitats in Czechia) is revised using newly collected material and old herbarium collections. Four Taraxacum sections are recognized, viz. T. sect. Crocea (= T. sect. Fontana), T. sect. Alpina, T. sect. Rhodocarpa (= T. sect. Alpestria) and a newly described T. sect. Oreodoxa Štěpánek et Kirschner, a peculiar monotypic taxon with a single species, T. incredibile, confined to limestone ranges in northern Romania. There are 16 species in Slovakia, 7 in Poland, 5 in Ukraine and 11 in Romania; out of the 25 species adopted after the revision, 10 are newly described and 14 occur only in a single country. The study of the Taraxacum venustum group in the Carpathians revealed a new Romanian species, which is described, and another new species in the Western Alps, which in the present paper is compared with the similar Bulgarian species, T. humifusum of T. sect. Bulgarica. Taraxacum venustum sensu lato is reported from the Eastern Carpathians, but further study is needed. Three species known from the Carpathians, T. crocelliforme, T. pawlowskii and T. hercynicum, are also recorded in the Alps. Endemism of dandelions in the Carpathians is analysed and compared with published data for other Carpathian plants and the neighbouring regions. Twenty-one species (of 25) are confined to the Carpathians, 17 are endemic to a single Carpathian region and most of them to the Western Carpathians. The main literature sources of Taraxacum records from the Carpathians are analysed in detail; numerous published records of Alpine species in the Carpathians were rejected. The seven names published by R. Doll from Slovakia were thoroughly revised, with four names accepted and three synonymized. Five names are lectotypified.