Sphagnum cyclophyllum |
Sphagnum microcarpum |
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sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants low, erect or procumbent, loosely tufted; green or more frequently yellowish, orangish brown-red, reddish brown or dark red; capitulum not developed. | Plants small; green to light green, capitulum indistinct. |
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. |
leaves isophyllous, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2.2–2.8 mm; apex rounded; hyaline cells nonseptate, convex surface with 6–12 pores per cell along commissures, concave surface aporose. |
Branches | few, single and short or more commonly none. |
straight and short. |
Branch leaves | if any, are usually slightly smaller, 2–3 mm, but otherwise identical to the stem leaves. |
ovate, 1.3–1.7 mm; hyaline cells on convex surface with 8–18 elliptic pores more than 8 µm, concave surface aporose. |
Sexual condition | dioicous. |
unknown. |
Capsule | immersed in perichaetial leaves, pseudopodium extremely short, without pseudostomata. |
not seen. |
Spores | 25–40 µm; coarsely papillose on both surfaces; proximal laesura more than 0.5 the length of the spore |
not seen. |
Branch | fascicles, if any, usually only 1 single branch. |
fascicles nearly all with 2 spreading branch only. |
Sphagnum cyclophyllum |
Sphagnum microcarpum |
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Habitat | In open grassy savannas, pine barrens, ditches, bare sand in places that are usually submerged for a portion of the year | Ruderal sites such as dessication-prone depressions, ditches, tire tracks, and natural depressions among tussocks |
Elevation | low to moderate elevations | low elevations |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; NJ; SC; TN; TX; VA; NS; South America |
FL; LA; NC |
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.) |
Sporophytes are rare in Sphagnum microcarpum, which grows over bare soil in a manner similar to that of S. cyclophyllum and S. fitzgeraldii. It is now recognized as separate from S. cyclophyllum, with which it has been treated as synonymous in the past. Besides the microscopic differences, S. microcarpum has a compact upright growth form quite unlike that of typical S. cyclophyllum. Sphagnum microcarpum is nearly always branched whereas S. cyclophyllum is nearly always simplex. The name Sphagnum mobilense Warnstorf also has been applied to this taxon. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 80. | FNA vol. 27, p. 82. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. microcarpum var. humile | |
Name authority | Sullivant: in A. Gray, Manual ed. 2, 611. (1856) | Warnstorf: Hedwigia 47: 94. (1907) |
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