Sphagnum beothuk |
Sphagnum fitzgeraldii |
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fitzgerald's sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants small to moderate-sized; capitulum rounded and dense; dark brown with a purplish sheen. | Plants small and weak-stemmed, flaccid and ± plumose when submerged to (more frequently) sprawling in thin mats; capitulum ± compact and with a strong terminal bud; pale green to greenish white. |
Stem | brown, superficial cortical cells aporose.; stem leaves lingulate, 1.1–1.2 mm, apex slightly apiculate to mostly broad and erose to lacerate, border only slightly broadened at base; hyaline cells rhomboid and 0–1-septate. |
pale green; superficial cortex of 1–2 layers of thin-walled and well differentiated cells.; stem leaves large, ovate to oblong-ovate, ca. 2 mm, more or less spreading; apex rounded and serrulate; hyaline cells fibrillose and often 1–septate, convex surface generally aporose, concave surface with 1–several round pores per cell in ends and angles. |
Branches | more or less 5-ranked. |
unranked to slightly 5-ranked, often short and blunt at distal end. |
Branch leaves | 0.95–1.3 mm, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, concave, straight to slightly subsecund, apex involute; hyaline cells on convex surface with numerous surface with numerous round to elliptic pores along the commissures, grading from large pores at the base to a mixture of small and tiny (2 µm) at the apex, concave surface with a few large, round pores/cell in lower side regions. |
ovate to oblong-quadrate, 1.2–2.5 mm, not undulate or recurved when dry, strongly toothed across apex and serrulate on margins; hyaline cells with to 4 small round ringed pores at cell ends on convex surface, small round wall thinnings in the cell ends and angles on the concave surface; chlorophyllous cells trapezoidal in transverse section, more broadly exposed on the convex surface. |
Sexual condition | unknown. |
monoicous. |
Spores | 38–48 µm; both surfaces covered with fine to moderately coarse papillae; proximal laesura less than 0.4 spore radius. |
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Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 1 pendent branch. |
fascicles with 1–2 spreading and 0–1 pendent branches.; branch stems green, with cortex enlarged with conspicuous retort cells. |
Sphagnum beothuk |
Sphagnum fitzgeraldii |
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Habitat | Forming dense hummocks in minerotrophic peatlands | Commonly in prostrate mats on damp sand, often in recently burned or cleared areas, also occasionally floating in ditches |
Elevation | moderate elevations | low elevations |
Distribution |
NF |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; VA |
Discussion | Sporophytes of Sphagnum fitzgeraldii are common, being immersed or exserted. This species is found largely on the Atlantic coastal plain. The wide truncate branch leaves easily distinguish it in most situations. Floating plants are not as quickly identified but can be distinguished from other species of sect. Cuspidata by the branch leaves wider than those of similar species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 90. | FNA vol. 27, p. 67. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. mohrianum | |
Name authority | R. E. Andrus: Sida 22: 966, figs. 21–26. (2006) | Lesquereu×& James: Man. 23. (1884) |
Web links |