Sphagnum girgensohnii |
Sphagnum inexspectatum |
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common green peat-moss, Girgensohn's sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants moderate-sized to robust, open, very stiff and slender, less frequently compact, capitulum large, flat, and stellate; typically deep green in shaded sites to yellowish brown in more open sites; without metallic lustre when dry. | Plants moderate-sized, normally erect; yellowish to reddish brown, greenish in shaded forms; capitulum moderately distinct and rounded. |
Stem(s) | leaves lingulate, broadly lingulate to lingulate-spatulate; 0.8–1.3 mm, apex broad, truncate and lacerate, border broad at base (more than 0.25 of base); hyaline cells rhomboid, efibrillose, and rarely septate. |
leaves triangular-lingulate to ovate-lingulate, 0.8–0.9 mm, apex rounded, straight; hyaline cells mostly non-septate, fibrillose in distal 1/3–2/3 of leaf, a few ringed pores at corners of cells and along commissures on convex surface, ringed pores along the commissures on the concave surface in greater numbers than on convex surface. |
Branches | typically long and tapering, not 5-ranked. |
short, not turgid. |
Branch leaves | ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1–1.4(–1.8) mm, concave, straight, apex strongly involute, margins entire; hyaline cells on convex surface with numerous elliptic pores along the commissures, grading from small pores near the apex to large pores near the base, concave surface with large round pores along the margins and base. |
broad-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 0.9–2.1 mm, straight; hyaline cells with numerous ringed pores (10–20) along the commissures on the convex surface, a few pseudopores and ringed pores (less than 8 per cell) occur on the cell angles on the concave surface. |
Sexual condition | dioicous. |
dioicous. |
Capsule | exserted, with few pseudostomata. |
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Spores | 21–27 µm, moderately to coarsely papillose on both surfaces; proximal laesura less than 0.5 spore radius. |
36–39 µm; coarsely papillose on both surfaces; proximal laesura less than or equal to 0.5 spore radius. |
Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 1–2 pendent branches.; branch stem with solitary retort cells or in groups of 2–3, necks moderately distinct. |
fascicles with 2–3 spreading and 1–2 pendent branches. |
Sphagnum girgensohnii |
Sphagnum inexspectatum |
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Phenology | Capsules mature late summer. | |
Habitat | Shade tolerant, forming carpets on moist forest floors, along small streams, up through subalpine zone | Ecology unclear, but growing in carpets in depressions, blanket mires |
Elevation | low to high elevations | low to moderate elevations |
Distribution |
AK; CA; CO; CT; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; ND; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Greenland; Eurasia
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AK; BC; Asia |
Discussion | Sporophytes are uncommon in Sphagnum girgensohnii. This species is most frequently associated with S. russowii, but also found growing with S. centrale, S. fallax, S. fimbriatum, S. warnstorfii, and S. magellanicum when growing in shaded sites of mires. It is very similar to S. rubiginosum, but S. girgensohnii lacks any reddish pigments, has only 2 spreading branches per fascicle, infrequently produces sporophytes, and differs in spore morphology. Throughout much of its range, S. girgensohnii is readily recognized by its green color and its large, slender, strongly stellate capitulum. In the more northern portion of its range, it frequently forms compact stands with a golden brown color and then the stem leaf must often be examined for accurate identification. In Alaska it overlaps morphogically with S. fimbriatum subsp. concinnum, which can look very similar but will have a more spatulate stem leaf that is lacerate completely across the broad flat apex and slightly down the sides. Sphagnum girgensohnii, on the other hand, has stem leaves only lacerate for about 3/4 of the apex width and less conspicuously broadened at the apex. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Sphagnum inexpectatum is frequently collected with S. tenellum, S. pacificum, S. andersonianum, and S. rubellum in weakly minerotrophic blanket mires. It is similar in size to S. subsecundum, with which its range completely overlaps. The latter species has many of the branch leaves subsecund while those of S. inexspectatum are straight. The stem leaves of S. inexspectatum are also conspicuously larger than those of S. subsecundum. Microscopically Sphagnum inexspectatum has a stem cortex that has enlarged thin-walled cells that form 1–2 layers, whereas S. subsecundum has only one. The stem leaves of S. inexspectatum also have numerous commissural pores in the hyaline cells in the distal half of the concave surface, whereas S. subsecundum has only a few if any in this region and these are more free than commissural. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 94. | FNA vol. 27, p. 80. |
Parent taxa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Acutifolia | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Subsecunda |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. mehneri | S. subsecundum var. andrusii, S. subsecundum var. junsaiense |
Name authority | Russow: Beitr. Torfm., 46. (1865) | Flatberg: Lindbergia 30: 59. (2005) |
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