Sphagnum magellanicum |
Sphagnum mississippiense |
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Magellan's sphagnum, magellanic peat-moss |
Mississippi sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants moderate-sized to robust, somewhat lax in shade forms to quite compact and stiff in open grown forms; green to pinkish green to reddish purple; forms lawns in shaded habitats and low to moderately tall, dense hummocks in open habitats. | Plants small, short and weak-stemmed, compact and sprawling in thin mats, green to pale yellow. |
Stem(s) | leaves to 2 × 0.7 mm; rarely hemiisophyllous; hyaline cells non-ornamented, mostly nonseptate. |
leaves elongate-triangular, 1.3–1.5 mm; often spreading; apex obtuse; hyaline cells mostly efibrillose and 1–septate in proximal half and lateral portions of leaves. |
Branches | long and tapering to short and pointed, leaves loosely imbricate. |
unranked, often blunt and with leaves moderately elongated at distal end. |
Branch leaves | broadly ovate, to 2 × 1 mm or more wide, broadly ovate, hyaline cells non-ornamented, convex surface with round to elliptic pores along the commissures; chlorophyllous cells short-elliptic in transverse section and well-enclosed on both surfaces. |
ovate to broadly ovate at branch base and becoming ovate-lanceolate at branch tip; 1.2–1.5 mm; undulate when dry, margins serrulate; hyaline cells of convex surface with 0–5 pores or pseudopores at cell apex, concave surface with faint round wall thinnings in cell angles, but may be absent, chlorophyllous cells trapezoidal in transverse section, exposed more broadly on convex surface. |
Sexual condition | dioicous. |
probably dioicous. |
Capsule | with numerous pseudostomata. |
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Spores | 22–30 µm; roughly papillose to nearly smooth, with distinct Y-mark sculpture on distal surface; proximal laesura 0.5–0.8 spore radius. |
not seen. |
Branch | fascicles with 2–3 spreading and 2–3 pendent branches.; branch stems with hyaline cells non-ornamented; no or weak funnel-like projections on the interior end walls, large round pores on superficial cell walls. |
fascicles with 2–3 spreading and 0–2 pendent branches.; branch stems green, with cortex enlarged with conspicuous retort cells. |
Sphagnum magellanicum |
Sphagnum mississippiense |
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Phenology | Capsules mature mid summer. | |
Habitat | Ecological amplitude very wide, ombrotrophic to rich fen peatlands, forested and open mires | Mats in seasonally wet depressions in coastal plain |
Elevation | low to high elevations | low elevations |
Distribution |
AK; AL; AR; CA; CT; DE; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; South America; Eurasia
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LA; MS; NJ |
Discussion | As the only boreal species of the section with a reddish purple color, Sphagnum magellanicum is usually easy to identify. The branch leaf chlorophyll cells are capable of being confused only with those of S. alaskense, which are less enclosed on both surfaces, and S. centrale, which has thickened end walls on the chlorophyll cells that give them a narrow exposure on the concave surface. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Sporophytes of Sphagnum mississippiense are unknown. The combination of broad branch leaves and obtuse stem leaves will distinguish it from S. cuspidatum and S. viride. The much commoner and more wide-ranging S. trinitense, although also having serrulate branch leaves, has much narrower branch leaves that are more elongate at the branch tips, becoming quite lanceolate as compared with the ovate-lanceolate branch leaves that S. mississippiense exhibits at its branch tips. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 52. | FNA vol. 27, p. 73. |
Parent taxa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Sphagnum | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Cuspidata |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Bridel: Muscol. Recent. 2(1): 24. (1798) | R. E. Andrus: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 45: 237. 1987 (as mississippiensis), |
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