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Pylaes' sphagnum

Lescur's sphagnum

Habit Plants slender and delicate, aquatic or prostrate, with a conspicuous terminal bud; dark greenish to purplish brown in submerged plants to deep salmon-red in prostrate plants, capitulum quite indistinct but with distinct terminal bud. Plants moderate-sized to robust; upright, prostrate, or aquatic; green, pale yellow, golden brown, dark brown, tinged with red in exposed sites and purplish in aquatic forms; capitulum rounded and often strongly twisted.
Stem(s)

leaves broadly ovate, 1.5–2(2.5) mm; straight;

hyaline cells fibrillose and nearly aporose, with single small pores occasionally found in the distal cell ends on the concave surface.

leaves lingulate to ovate-lingulate, 1.3–2 mm;

apex truncate to rounded, usually denticulate;

hyaline cells typically fibrillose for 1/2 of leaf or more, often 1–2-septate, convex surface with 4–12 or more pores per cell along the commissures, concave surface with fewer pores.

Branches

lacking or short and slender.

usually curving, often large and tumid.

Branch leaves

when present similar to stem leaves but smaller, 0.8–1.2 mm, hyaline cells fibrillose and mostly aporose, 1–6 irregularly round-shaped membrane gaps in some cells near apex on convex surface.

broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.3–2.5 mm, greatly elongated in aquatic forms, straight or infrequently subsecund or subsquarrose;

hyaline cells with 10–22 pores along the commissures on the convex surface, no or fewer pores per cell (1–8) on the concave surface.

Sexual condition

dioicous.

dioicous.

Capsule

usually immersed in perichaetiale leaves, but may be slightly emergent, pseudostomata absent from capsule surface.

exserted, with few pseudostomata.

Spores

29–41 µm, coarsely papillose on both surfaces, indistinct raised sculpture on distal surface;

proximal laesura less than 0.5 spore radius.

27–34 µm; finely papillose on both surfaces, with distinct raised Y-mark sculpture (indistinctly bifurcated Y-mark) on the distal surface;

proximal laesura less than 0.5 spore radius.

Branch

fascicles none or 1 spreading branch.

fascicles with 2(rarely 3) spreading and 1–2(–3) pendent branches.

Sphagnum pylaesii

Sphagnum lescurii

Habitat Weakly minerotrophic, wet rocks, poor fens Weakly minerotrophic in a broad range of wetlands, often of an aquatic or periodically dried character
Elevation low to high elevations low to moderate elevations
Distribution
from FNA
MA; ME; NC; NH; NJ; NF; NS; QC; Greenland; NY ; Europe
[WildflowerSearch map]
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; NF; NS; Europe
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Discussion

Sporophytes rare in Sphagnum pylaesii. This species is distributed as a pioneer on wet rocks associated with S. tenellum and S. papillosum, or in poor fens with S. pulchrum, S. majus, and S. papillosum. See also discussion under 53. S. cyclophyllum.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Sporophytes are uncommon in Sphagnum lescurii, which may be the most phenotypically variable of all the North American Sphagnum species, and quite probably deserves some taxonomic splitting. The tremendous phenotypic plasticity of this species, however, makes it quite difficult to sort out the genotypic component of variability, and thus most sphagnologists since Warnstorf have avoided the temptation of splitting and have instead treated this as one very variable species. This is the approach maintained in this treatment. We have also chosen not to use the earlier name S. denticulatum because its type is a phenotypic morphotype not clearly assignable to the current concept of either S. auriculatum or S. lescurii (K. I. Flatberg, pers. comm.). Some of the American material assignable to S. lescurii is quite likely the same as the European species S. auriculatum, but much of our material is certainly not the same. Until more definitive data are available, we have chosen to continue to use the name S. lescurii. The large stem leaf will generally distinguish this from similar species of sect. Subsecunda. See also discussion under 55. S. inundatum and 61. S. platyphyllum.

The names Sphagnum alabamae Warnstorf, S. aquatile Warnstorf, S. obesum (Wilson) Warnstorf, S. rufescens (Nees & Hornschuch) Warnstorf, and S. turgidulum Warnstorf also have been applied to this taxon.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 27, p. 84. FNA vol. 27, p. 81.
Parent taxa Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Subsecunda Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Subsecunda
Sibling taxa
S. affine, S. alaskense, S. andersonianum, S. angermanicum, S. angustifolium, S. annulatum, S. aongstroemii, S. arcticum, S. atlanticum, S. austinii, S. balticum, S. bartlettianum, S. beothuk, S. bergianum, S. brevifolium, S. capillifolium, S. carolinianum, S. centrale, S. compactum, S. contortum, S. cribrosum, S. cuspidatum, S. cyclophyllum, S. fallax, S. fimbriatum, S. fitzgeraldii, S. flavicomans, S. flexuosum, S. fuscum, S. girgensohnii, S. henryense, S. imbricatum, S. inexspectatum, S. inundatum, S. isoviitae, S. jensenii, S. junghuhnianum, S. kenaiense, S. lenense, S. lescurii, S. lindbergii, S. macrophyllum, S. magellanicum, S. majus, S. mcqueenii, S. mendocinum, S. microcarpum, S. mirum, S. mississippiense, S. molle, S. obtusum, S. oregonense, S. orientale, S. pacificum, S. palustre, S. papillosum, S. perfoliatum, S. perichaetiale, S. platyphyllum, S. portoricense, S. pulchrum, S. quinquefarium, S. recurvum, S. riparium, S. rubellum, S. rubiginosum, S. rubroflexuosum, S. russowii, S. sitchense, S. splendens, S. squarrosum, S. steerei, S. strictum, S. subfulvum, S. subnitens, S. subsecundum, S. subtile, S. talbotianum, S. tenellum, S. tenerum, S. teres, S. torreyanum, S. trinitense, S. tundrae, S. viride, S. warnstorfii, S. wilfii, S. wulfianum
S. affine, S. alaskense, S. andersonianum, S. angermanicum, S. angustifolium, S. annulatum, S. aongstroemii, S. arcticum, S. atlanticum, S. austinii, S. balticum, S. bartlettianum, S. beothuk, S. bergianum, S. brevifolium, S. capillifolium, S. carolinianum, S. centrale, S. compactum, S. contortum, S. cribrosum, S. cuspidatum, S. cyclophyllum, S. fallax, S. fimbriatum, S. fitzgeraldii, S. flavicomans, S. flexuosum, S. fuscum, S. girgensohnii, S. henryense, S. imbricatum, S. inexspectatum, S. inundatum, S. isoviitae, S. jensenii, S. junghuhnianum, S. kenaiense, S. lenense, S. lindbergii, S. macrophyllum, S. magellanicum, S. majus, S. mcqueenii, S. mendocinum, S. microcarpum, S. mirum, S. mississippiense, S. molle, S. obtusum, S. oregonense, S. orientale, S. pacificum, S. palustre, S. papillosum, S. perfoliatum, S. perichaetiale, S. platyphyllum, S. portoricense, S. pulchrum, S. pylaesii, S. quinquefarium, S. recurvum, S. riparium, S. rubellum, S. rubiginosum, S. rubroflexuosum, S. russowii, S. sitchense, S. splendens, S. squarrosum, S. steerei, S. strictum, S. subfulvum, S. subnitens, S. subsecundum, S. subtile, S. talbotianum, S. tenellum, S. tenerum, S. teres, S. torreyanum, S. trinitense, S. tundrae, S. viride, S. warnstorfii, S. wilfii, S. wulfianum
Synonyms Hemitheca pylaiei, S. pylaesii var. austinii, S. pylaesii var. prostratum, S. pylaesii var. ramosum, S. sedoides, S. sedoides var. austinii, S. sedoides var. prostratum S. orlandense, S. plicatum, S. wieboldtii
Name authority Bridel: Bryol. Univ. 1: 749. (1827) Sullivant: in A. Gray, Manual ed. 2, 611. (1856)
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