Sphagnum fimbriatum |
Sphagnum atlanticum |
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fringe bogmoss, fringe peat-moss, sphagnum |
Atlantic sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants typically small and slender, larger and compact in the Arctic, capitulum small to moderate-sized, often with a conspicuous terminal bud; green, yellowish brown to brown; without metallic lustre when dry. | Plants robust and weak-stemmed; green, golden brown to dark brown; capitulum often flat-topped and with a visible terminal bud; flaccid and plumose in submerged forms to more compact in emergent or stranded forms. | ||||
Stem(s) | leaves spatulate to broad-spatulate, 0.8–1.5(–2) mm, strongly lacerate across the broad apex and often part way down the margins, border scarcely to strongly broadened at base (0.25 width of base or less); hyaline cells rhomboid, efibrillose and often 1–2-septate. |
leaves triangular, large, less than 1.7 mm, mostly appressed to stem, apex weakly apiculate to narrowly obtuse; hyaline cells efibrillose and seldom to often septate at base and sides. |
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Branches | not 5-ranked, quite terete, long, and slender Branch fascicles with 1– 2 spreading and 1–2 pendent branches. |
unranked, long and tapering, leaves greatly elongate at distal end. |
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Branch leaves | ovate to ovate-lanceolate; 1.1–1.5(–2) mm, slightly concave, straight; apex involute; margins entire; hyaline cells on convex surface with numerous pores along the commissures grading from small pores near leaf apex to large pores at base, concave surface with large round pores at leaf apex and along margins. |
ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate in aquatic forms, ovate to ovate-lanceolate in emergent forms, greater than 2.5 mm, often falcate-secund, especially in submerged forms, weakly undulate and recurved when dry; margin entire, hyaline cells on convex surface with 0–1 pores per cell, concave surface with round wall thinnings in the cell apices and angles; chlorophyllous cells narrowly triangular in transverse section and well-enclosed on the concave surface. |
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Sexual condition | often monoicous. |
dioicous. |
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Spores | 20–27 µm, finely papillose on both surfaces; proximal laesura less than 0.5 spore radius. |
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Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 2 pendent branches.; branch stem green, cortex enlarged with conspicuous retort cells. |
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Sporophytes | not seen. |
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Sphagnum fimbriatum |
Sphagnum atlanticum |
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Habitat | Forming loose carpets in pools in weakly minerotrophic fens | |||||
Elevation | low elevations | |||||
Distribution |
North America; South America; Eurasia; Pacific Islands (New Zealand)
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CT; DE; MA; MD; ME; NC; NH; NJ; NY; PA; RI; VA; VT; NB; NF; NS |
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Discussion | Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Sporophytes of Sphagnum atlanticum are rare. The other large North American Atlantic coastal plain species of sect. Cuspidata, S. torreyanum, is typically more yellow, has a more rounded capitulum, and has straight rather than subsecund branch leaves. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 92. | FNA vol. 27, p. 65. | ||||
Parent taxa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Acutifolia | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Cuspidata | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Wilson & Hooker: in J. D. Hooker, Fl. Antarct., 398. (1847) | R. E. Andrus: Bryologist 110: 274, figs. (2007) | ||||
Web links |