Sphagnum angustifolium |
Sphagnum carolinianum |
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fine bogmoss, poor-fen peat-moss, sphagnum |
Carolina sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants small and often slender and soft, lax to compact, moderately stiff-stemmed; green to pale yellow to golden brown to brown; capitulum strongly convex in drier grown forms to strongly 5-radiate and flat in wetter growing forms. | Plants moderate to large, erect to floating, green to dark brown; capitulum large, well defined and flat-topped. |
Stem(s) | leaves equilateral to isosceles-triangular, small, less than 0.8 mm, mostly appressed to stem, apex acute to obtuse, hyaline cells efibrillose and nonseptate. |
leaves lingulate to lingulate-triangular, 0.7–1.5 mm (to 3 mm in isophyllous forms), apex erose; hyaline cells mostly 1–septate but in a few cells with 2–3 parallel septations, efibrillose to fibrillose throughout, pores present in hemiisophyllous and isophyllous forms. |
Branches | straight to slightly curved, usually 5-ranked; leaves not much longer at distal end than proximal end. |
straight to somewhat curved, with spreading leaves. |
Branch leaves | narrowly ovate-lanceolate, 0.8–1 mm, straight, moderately undulate and recurved in larger and/or wetter grown forms, not undulate and slightly recurved in compact forms from drier sites; margins entire; hyaline cells on convex surface with 1(2–3) pore per cell at apical end of cell, on concave surface with round wall thinnings in cell ends and angles; chlorophyllous cells triangular in transverse section and just enclosed on concave surface. |
variable, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.3–5 mm; straight, hyaline cells on the convex surface with 4–8 µm round to elliptic pores in nearly continuous rows along the commissures, the concave surface aporose or with some porosity as on the convex surface. |
Sexual condition | dioicous. |
unknown. |
Capsule | not seen. |
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Spores | 21–25 µm; coarsely papillose on proximal and distal surfaces; proximal laesura more than 0.5 spore radius. |
not seen. |
Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 2–3 pendent branches.; branch stems with cortex enlarged with conspicuous retort cells, often pinkish red at proximal end. |
fascicles with 2 spreading and 2 pendent in emergent forms, these reduced in aquatic forms to 2 per fascicle. |
Sphagnum angustifolium |
Sphagnum carolinianum |
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Habitat | Wide range of habitats, from ombrotrophic to rich fens, open mires, sedge fens and muskeg, as carpets, floating mats, low hummocks and hummock sides | Forming wet often floating carpets in pools in weakly minerotrophic mires |
Elevation | low to high elevations | low to moderate elevations |
Distribution |
AK; CA; CO; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; QC; SK; YT; Greenland; Eurasia
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AL; DE; FL; GA; LA; MA; ME; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; SC; TN; TX; VA; NF |
Discussion | The sporophytes of Sphagnum angustifolium are somewhat common. This species is distinguished from similar ones in sect. Cuspidata by the small, triangular, obtuse and appressed stem leaves. It also often has a pink stem, as opposed to the reddish branch bases seen in some other species of the section. Sphagnum balticum has stem leaves that are more lingulate-triangular as well as spreading from the stem. Sphagnum angustifolium belongs to a subgroup within sect. Cuspidata usually referred to as S. recurvum, in the broad sense, a group of mostly carpet-forming species that differ from other members of the section in having pairs of pendent branch buds visible between the capitulum rays. The group also includes S. brevifolium, S. fallax, S. flexuosum, S. pacificum, S. recurvum, S. rubroflexuosum, and S. splendens. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The sporophytes of Sphagnum carolinianum are unknown. In its apparent restriction to the coastal plain, this species is most similar distributionally to such species as S. macrophyllum, S. fitzgeraldii, and S. tenerum. When forming carpets, S. carolinianum macrospically most resembles S. atlanticum but its branch leaves are not as elongate as those of the latter and its stem leaves have a much more obtuse apex. When growing aquatically, S. caroliniaum can resemble S. cribrosum, but in the latter species the hanging branches are not different from the spreading branches and may even be lacking. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 64. | FNA vol. 27, p. 79. |
Parent taxa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Cuspidata | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Subsecunda |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. recurvum var. angustifolium, S. amblyphyllum var. parvifolium, S. flexuosum var. tenue, S. parvifolium, S. recurvum var. parvifolium, S. recurvum var. tenue | S. subsecundum var. carolinianum |
Name authority | (Warnstorf) C. E. O. Jensen: Bih. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. Handl. 16(9): 46. (1891) | R. E. Andrus: Bryologist 86: 257, figs. (1983) |
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