Sphagnum cribrosum |
Sphagnum molle |
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sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants green, light brown to brown. | Plants moderate-sized, soft and lax when wet, stiff when dry, typically very compact, capitulum flat and usually large; pale whitish, yellowish or purplish, occasionally a deep purple-red; without metallic sheen when dry. |
Stem(s) | leaves quite variable in shape, elongate-lingulate to ovate, broadest above the middle, 1.9–2.5 mm, slightly concave, straight; apex broad and toothed; hyaline cells narrowly rhomboid, 0–1-septate, distal portion fibrillose, convex surface with membrane pleats, concave surface with 1(2–3) oblong membrane gaps. |
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Branches | rarely 5-ranked. |
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Branch leaves | ovate-ligulate, apex broad, rounded, and truncate, hyaline cells with 20–40 small (less than 0.25 cell diameter) in mostly 2 rows. |
ovate, 1.6–2.2 mm, concave, straight; apex stiffly involute and broadly truncate with up to 8 teeth, border denticulate due to cell wall resorption and projecting cell walls; hyaline cells strongly bulging on convex surface and nearly plane on the concave surface, convex surface with narrowly elliptic pores along commissures grading from smaller pores near the apex to large rounded pores at base, concave surface with large round pores in proximal regions of leaf. |
Sexual condition | monoicous. |
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Spores | 27–33 µm, finely papillose on both surfaces with distinct bifurcated Y-mark sculpture on distal surface; proximal laesura less than 0.5 spore radius. |
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Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 1–2 pendent branches. |
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Sphagnum cribrosum |
Sphagnum molle |
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Phenology | Capsules mature early to mid summer. | |
Habitat | Floating or stranded at margins of shallow acidic lakes and ponds | Weakly minerotrophic and hygrophytic, poor fens and sand dunes, forming tight cushions among grasses and sedges in savannas, pine barrens, swamps, pond margins, and ditches where periodic dessication is common |
Elevation | low elevations | low to high elevations |
Distribution |
FL; GA; MD; NC; SC |
AL; DE; FL; GA; KY; LA; ME; MS; NC; NJ; NY; SC; TX; VA; LB; Europe |
Discussion | Besides having different branch leaf porosity, Sphagnum cribrosum is usually distinguishable from the closely related S. macrophyllum by its paler brown color and distinctly broader and more truncate branch leaves. “Wave forms” of both S. cribrosum and S. macrophyllum, seemingly developed in response to growing in shallow water where wave action is common, can have very odd phenotypes that may look more like Fontinalis than Sphagnum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The sporophytes of Sphagnum molle are common. This species is usually easily distinguished from other red species of sect. Acutifolia by its relatively large, straight, loosely spreading and unranked branch leaves. Sphagnum tenerum, the other red species of sect. Acutifolia to which it is most similar, has branch leaves that are quite imbricate. Microscopically, the denticulate-margined branch leaves are unmistakeable. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 61. | FNA vol. 27, p. 95. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. floridanum, S. macrophyllum var. floridanum | S. labradorense, S. tabulare |
Name authority | Lindberg: Eur. Hvitmoss., 74. (1882) | Sullivant: Musc. Allegh., 205. (1846) |
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