Sphagnum lindbergii |
Sphagnum cribrosum |
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brown-stem peat-moss, Lindberg's sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants moderate-sized to large, moderately densely branched; green to brown, often bluish tinged and/or shiny when dry; capitulum flattopped with a conspicuous terminal bud. | Plants green, light brown to brown. |
Stem(s) | leaves lingulate-spatulate, large, 1.3–1.6 mm; appressed to stem; apex very broad and lacerate; hyaline cells efibrillose and aporose, often septate. |
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Branches | strongly 5-ranked and straight. |
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Branch leaves | ovate-lanceolate, 1.5–3 mm; straight to slightly subsecund; imbricate to somewhat reflexed and not undulate; margins entire; hyaline cells long and narrow, length to width ca. 10:1 on convex surface with 1 or more small pores in the cell ends and angles and often with numerous pseudopores along the margins, on concave surface with large round wall thinnings on the cell ends and angles; chlorophyllous cells triangular to trapezoidal in transverse section, apex often exposed on concave surface. |
ovate-ligulate, apex broad, rounded, and truncate, hyaline cells with 20–40 small (less than 0.25 cell diameter) in mostly 2 rows. |
Sexual condition | monoicous or dioicous. |
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Spores | 22–34 µm; both surfaces smooth, apparent ridged border on proximal surface; proximal laesura more than 0.5 spore radius. |
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Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 2 pendent branches, leaves not much elongated at distal end.; branch stems green, with cortex enlarged with retort cells. |
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Sphagnum lindbergii |
Sphagnum cribrosum |
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Habitat | Widespread forming carpets in ombrotrophic to weakly minerotrophic boreal mires | Floating or stranded at margins of shallow acidic lakes and ponds |
Elevation | low to high elevations | low elevations |
Distribution |
AK; CO; NH; NY; WA; AB; BC; MB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; QC; YT; Greenland; Eurasia |
FL; GA; MD; NC; SC |
Discussion | Sporophytes are uncommon. Sphagnum lindbergii is normally easily distinguished from other carpet-forming species of sect. Cuspidata by its large, strongly lacerate stem leaf and dark brown to black stem. Sexual condition is taken from from L. I. Savicz-Lubitzkaya and Z. N. Smirnova (1968). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 70. | FNA vol. 27, p. 61. |
Parent taxa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Cuspidata | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Isocladus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. floridanum, S. macrophyllum var. floridanum | |
Name authority | Schimper: Öfvers. Kongl. Vetensk.-Akad. Förh. 14: 126. (1857) | Lindberg: Eur. Hvitmoss., 74. (1882) |
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