The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

sphagnum

Habit Plants low, erect or procumbent, loosely tufted; green or more frequently yellowish, orangish brown-red, reddish brown or dark red; capitulum not developed.
Stem(s)

leaves broadly ovate, 3.5–4 mm, apex rounded and indistinctly toothed;

hyaline cells on convex surface with 10–20 small (2.5–7.5 µm) round pores approximately 1/6 the diameter of the hyaline cells along the commissures, cells on concave surface uniporose in distal end or aporose, sometimes one or a few pores are scattered over the surface of the cells.

Branches

few, single and short or more commonly none.

Branch leaves

if any, are usually slightly smaller, 2–3 mm, but otherwise identical to the stem leaves.

Sexual condition

dioicous.

Capsule

immersed in perichaetial leaves, pseudopodium extremely short, without pseudostomata.

Spores

25–40 µm; coarsely papillose on both surfaces;

proximal laesura more than 0.5 the length of the spore

Branch

fascicles, if any, usually only 1 single branch.

Sphagnum cyclophyllum

Habitat In open grassy savannas, pine barrens, ditches, bare sand in places that are usually submerged for a portion of the year
Elevation low to moderate elevations
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; NJ; SC; TN; TX; VA; NS; South America
Discussion

Sporophytes are quite rare in Sphagnum cyclophyllum, which grows associated with S. pylaesii, S. perichaetiale, S. portoricense, and S. lescurii. Sphagnum pylaesii is the only other North American Sphagnum that regularly grows unbranched. The latter species not only lacks the typical sect. Subsecunda branch leaf porosity of S. cyclophyllum but is also much more slender. Sphagnum pylaesii is also much more likely to occur submersed, where it occurs in branched forms, something S. cyclophyllum rarely does. See also discussion under 57. S. microcarpum and 61. S. platyphyllum.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 27, p. 80.
Parent taxa Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Subsecunda
Sibling taxa
S. affine, S. alaskense, S. andersonianum, S. angermanicum, S. angustifolium, S. annulatum, S. aongstroemii, S. arcticum, S. atlanticum, S. austinii, S. balticum, S. bartlettianum, S. beothuk, S. bergianum, S. brevifolium, S. capillifolium, S. carolinianum, S. centrale, S. compactum, S. contortum, S. cribrosum, S. cuspidatum, S. fallax, S. fimbriatum, S. fitzgeraldii, S. flavicomans, S. flexuosum, S. fuscum, S. girgensohnii, S. henryense, S. imbricatum, S. inexspectatum, S. inundatum, S. isoviitae, S. jensenii, S. junghuhnianum, S. kenaiense, S. lenense, S. lescurii, S. lindbergii, S. macrophyllum, S. magellanicum, S. majus, S. mcqueenii, S. mendocinum, S. microcarpum, S. mirum, S. mississippiense, S. molle, S. obtusum, S. oregonense, S. orientale, S. pacificum, S. palustre, S. papillosum, S. perfoliatum, S. perichaetiale, S. platyphyllum, S. portoricense, S. pulchrum, S. pylaesii, S. quinquefarium, S. recurvum, S. riparium, S. rubellum, S. rubiginosum, S. rubroflexuosum, S. russowii, S. sitchense, S. splendens, S. squarrosum, S. steerei, S. strictum, S. subfulvum, S. subnitens, S. subsecundum, S. subtile, S. talbotianum, S. tenellum, S. tenerum, S. teres, S. torreyanum, S. trinitense, S. tundrae, S. viride, S. warnstorfii, S. wilfii, S. wulfianum
Name authority Sullivant: in A. Gray, Manual ed. 2, 611. (1856)
Web links