Sphagnum palustre |
Sphagnum mississippiense |
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blunt-leaf bogmoss, blunt-leaf peat-moss, prairie sphagnum |
Mississippi sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants moderate-sized to robust, strong-stemmed, lax to somewhat compact, capitulum somewhat flattened to more typically compact and rounded; green to golden brown to pale brown with often a pinkish tinge; carpets to more or less compact, low to moderate sized hummocks. | Plants small, short and weak-stemmed, compact and sprawling in thin mats, green to pale yellow. |
Stem(s) | leaves to 1.7 × 1 mm, occasionally longer; rarely hemiisophyllous; hyaline cells non-ornamented, 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, leaves ± imbricate to spreading in shade forms. |
unranked, often blunt and with leaves moderately elongated at distal end. |
Branch leaves | broadly ovate, 2.2 × 1.3 mm, hyaline cells non-ornamented, convex surface with elliptic pores along the commissures, chlorophyllous cells isosceles-triangular to ovate-triangular in transverse section and just enclosed to just exposed on the convex surface; end wall not thickened. |
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 | 24–33 µm, surface finely papillose to smooth, distal surface with distinct bifurcated Y-mark sculpture; proximal laesura more than 0.6 spore radius. |
not seen. |
Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 2 pendent branches.; branch stems with hyaline cells non-ornamented; no or weak funnel-like projections on the interior end walls, often with 1 large pore per cell 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 palustre |
Sphagnum mississippiense |
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Phenology | Capsules mature mid to late summer. | |
Habitat | Widespread in forested fens and poor to rich sedge fens | Mats in seasonally wet depressions in coastal plain |
Elevation | low to moderate elevations | low elevations |
Distribution |
AL; AR; CA; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; BC; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; Europe; Pacific Islands
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LA; MS; NJ |
Discussion | Sphagnum palustre may occur elsewhere than listed above, but the taxonomy is unclear. In some open-grown situations, it may have a reddish tinge and seem similar to S. magellanicum, but this is a pinkish red color rather than the purplish red of the latter. See discussions under 5. S. henryense and 9. S. papillosum for distinction from those species. (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. 53. | FNA vol. 27, p. 73. |
Parent taxa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Sphagnum | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Cuspidata |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. cymbifolium | |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1106. (1753) | R. E. Andrus: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 45: 237. 1987 (as mississippiensis), |
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