Sphagnum balticum |
Sphagnum carolinianum |
|
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Baltic peat-moss, Baltic sphagnum |
Carolina sphagnum |
|
Habit | Plants small to moderate-sized, soft and ± weak-stemmed; brownish green, yellow-green, yellowish to golden brown, capitulum typically flat and 5-radiate. | Plants moderate to large, erect to floating, green to dark brown; capitulum large, well defined and flat-topped. |
Stem(s) | leaves 0.8–1.1 mm, triangular-lingulate to lingulate, concave, spreading, apex broadly obtuse, hyaline cells fibrillose in apical region. |
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 | slender and tapering, often 5-ranked and decurved, leaves somewhat elongated at distal end. |
straight to somewhat curved, with spreading leaves. |
Branch leaves | ovate-lanceolate, 1–1.7 mm, straight, slightly undulate and spreading; margin entire, hyaline cells on convex surface with 1–5 pores in cell ends and free near apex, on concave surface with round wall thinnings in cell ends and angles; chlorophyllous cells triangular in transverse section and well-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. |
|
Spores | 25–33 µm; smooth to finely papillose on both surfaces; proximal laesura approximately 0.5 spore radius. |
not seen. |
Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and mostly 1 pendent branch.; branch stem green, cortex enlarged with conspicuous retort cells. |
fascicles with 2 spreading and 2 pendent in emergent forms, these reduced in aquatic forms to 2 per fascicle. |
Sphagnum balticum |
Sphagnum carolinianum |
|
Habitat | Abundant in hollows and floating mats in raised bogs and poor fens | Forming wet often floating carpets in pools in weakly minerotrophic mires |
Elevation | low to high elevations | low to moderate elevations |
Distribution |
AK; CO; AB; BC; MB; NT; NU; ON; QC; YT; Greenland; Eurasia |
AL; DE; FL; GA; LA; MA; ME; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; SC; TN; TX; VA; NF |
Discussion | Unlike Sphagnum angustifolium and S. annulatum, S. balticum has stem leaves exerted at right angles to the stem. It also has fewer and weaker hanging branches than does S. angustifolium, which make the stem itself often visible and the stem leaves easier to see. Sphagnum balticum also lacks the paired pendent branch buds between the capitulum rays as seen in S. angustifolium. In Sphagnum kenaiense there are sometimes spreading stem leaves but this species has 2 hanging branches per fascicle. (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. 65. | FNA vol. 27, p. 79. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. recurvum subsp. balticum | S. subsecundum var. carolinianum |
Name authority | (Russow) C. E. O. Jensen: in Botaniske Forening København, Festskrift, 100. (1890) | R. E. Andrus: Bryologist 86: 257, figs. (1983) |
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