Sphagnum atlanticum |
Sphagnum sitchense |
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Atlantic sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants robust and weak-stemmed; green, golden brown to dark brown; capitulum often flat-topped and with a visible terminal bud; flaccid and plumose in submerged forms to more compact in emergent or stranded forms. | Plants moderate-sized; capitulum flat-topped and dense; pale yellow and pink, lacking sheen. |
Stem(s) | leaves triangular, large, less than 1.7 mm, mostly appressed to stem, apex weakly apiculate to narrowly obtuse; hyaline cells efibrillose and seldom to often septate at base and sides. |
pink, superficial cortical cells aporose.; stem leaves narrowly triangular to lingulate- triangular, 1.2–1.6 × 0.6–0.8 mm, length: width ratio ca. 2:1, apex apiculate, border strong and moderately broadened basally; hyaline cells narrowly rhomboid and 1 to occasionally 2 septate, often fibrillose apically. |
Branches | unranked, long and tapering, leaves greatly elongate at distal end. |
not 5-ranked. |
Branch leaves | ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate in aquatic forms, ovate to ovate-lanceolate in emergent forms, greater than 2.5 mm, often falcate-secund, especially in submerged forms, weakly undulate and recurved when dry; margin entire, hyaline cells on convex surface with 0–1 pores per cell, concave surface with round wall thinnings in the cell apices and angles; chlorophyllous cells narrowly triangular in transverse section and well-enclosed on the concave surface. |
1.3–1.5 × 0.5–0.55 mm, ovate-lanceolate, concave, straight, apex involute; hyaline cells on convex surface with numerous round to elliptic pores along the commissures, grading from large elliptical pores at the base to moderate-sized round pores at the apex, concave surface with a few large round pores scattered throughout. |
Sexual condition | dioicous. |
unknown. |
Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 2 pendent branches.; branch stem green, cortex enlarged with conspicuous retort cells. |
fascicles with 2 spreading and 1 pendent branch. |
Sporophytes | not seen. |
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Sphagnum atlanticum |
Sphagnum sitchense |
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Habitat | Forming loose carpets in pools in weakly minerotrophic fens | Known only from type locality where it was forming low dense hummocks in alpine tundra |
Elevation | low elevations | moderate elevations |
Distribution |
CT; DE; MA; MD; ME; NC; NH; NJ; NY; PA; RI; VA; VT; NB; NF; NS |
AK |
Discussion | Sporophytes of Sphagnum atlanticum are rare. The other large North American Atlantic coastal plain species of sect. Cuspidata, S. torreyanum, is typically more yellow, has a more rounded capitulum, and has straight rather than subsecund branch leaves. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 65. | FNA vol. 27, p. 98. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | R. E. Andrus: Bryologist 110: 274, figs. (2007) | R. E. Andrus: Sida 22: 969, figs. 27–34. (2006) |
Web links |