Sphagnum lindbergii |
Sphagnum strictum |
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brown-stem peat-moss, Lindberg's sphagnum |
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 moderate-sized, pale green, yellow-green to occasionally strongly reddish; growing in loose mats. |
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. |
leaves very small, less than 0.8 mm, triangular with blunt rounded apex. |
Branches | strongly 5-ranked and straight. |
erect in distal portion of plants. |
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. |
large, 2.8 mm or longer, sub-squarrose, ovate, involute to broad, truncate apex with more than 6 teeth; hyaline cells with up to 6 non-ringed pores on convex surface with few or no pseudopores, 2–4 elliptic ringed pores on concave surface in corners or along commissures, internal commissural walls minutely papillose (best viewed in oblique sections), rarely smooth; chlorophyllous cells narrowly triangular in transverse section, more broadly exposed on convex surface, enclosed on concave surface. |
Sexual condition | monoicous or dioicous. |
monoicous. |
Capsule | with abundant pseudostomata on surface of capsule. |
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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. |
31–43 µm; coarsely papillose on both proximal and distal surfaces, raised Y-mark sculpture on distal surface; proximal laesura moderately long, 0.4–0.7 spore radius. |
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. |
fascicles with 2 short-spreading and 3 long-tapering pendent branches. |
Sphagnum lindbergii |
Sphagnum strictum |
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Phenology | Capsules common, mature early to mid summer. | |
Habitat | Widespread forming carpets in ombrotrophic to weakly minerotrophic boreal mires | Pioneer species among grasses on peaty sand, pine barrens, burned-over savannas, seeps in mountainous areas inland |
Elevation | low to high elevations | low to high elevations |
Distribution |
AK; CO; NH; NY; WA; AB; BC; MB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; QC; YT; Greenland; Eurasia |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MD; ME; NC; NJ; SC; VA; NB; NF; NS; Europe |
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.) |
Though they seldom if ever overlap ecologically, Sphagnum strictum and S. squarrosum both usually have squarrose branch leaves, but S. squarrosum has a lingulate fringed stem leaf that differs greatly from the triangular and entire-margined stem leaf of S. strictum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 70. | FNA vol. 27, p. 56. |
Parent taxa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Cuspidata | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Rigida |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. compactum var. expositum, S. garberi, S. mexicanum | |
Name authority | Schimper: Öfvers. Kongl. Vetensk.-Akad. Förh. 14: 126. (1857) | Sullivant: Musc. Allegh., 201. (1846) |
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