Sphagnum quinquefarium |
Sphagnum atlanticum |
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five-rank peat-moss, sphagnum |
Atlantic sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants moderate-sized, typically stiff and compact, capitulum usually hemispherical; green, grayish white, pale yellow, purplish red, may have a slight metallic luster when dry. | Plants robust and weak-stemmed; green, golden brown to dark brown; capitulum often flat-topped and with a visible terminal bud; flaccid and plumose in submerged forms to more compact in emergent or stranded forms. |
Stem(s) | leaves triangular to triangular-lingulate, 1–1.3 mm, apex acute to slightly obtuse, border broad at base (more than 0.25 width); hyaline cells narrowly rhomboid, mostly 0–1-septate and mostly efibrillose. |
leaves triangular, large, less than 1.7 mm, mostly appressed to stem, apex weakly apiculate to narrowly obtuse; hyaline cells efibrillose and seldom to often septate at base and sides. |
Branches | usually strongly 5-ranked. |
unranked, long and tapering, leaves greatly elongate at distal end. |
Branch leaves | ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.1–1.5 mm, concave, straight, apex slightly involute; hyaline cells on convex surface with numerous oval to elliptic pores along commissures grading from small pores near apex to large round pores at base, concave surface with large round pores in proximal portions of leaf. |
ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate in aquatic forms, ovate to ovate-lanceolate in emergent forms, greater than 2.5 mm, often falcate-secund, especially in submerged forms, weakly undulate and recurved when dry; margin entire, hyaline cells on convex surface with 0–1 pores per cell, concave surface with round wall thinnings in the cell apices and angles; chlorophyllous cells narrowly triangular in transverse section and well-enclosed on the concave surface. |
Sexual condition | monoicous or dioicous. |
dioicous. |
Spores | 19–27 µm, finely papillose on proximal surface, pusticulate on distal surface; proximal laesura less than 0.4 spore radius. |
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Branch | fascicles with mostly 3 spreading and 1–2 pendent branches. |
fascicles with 2 spreading and 2 pendent branches.; branch stem green, cortex enlarged with conspicuous retort cells. |
Sporophytes | not seen. |
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Sphagnum quinquefarium |
Sphagnum atlanticum |
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Phenology | Capsules mature mid summer. | |
Habitat | Weakly minerotrophic and hygrophytic, wet mineral bedrock, damp coniferous humus along coast and in montane regions | Forming loose carpets in pools in weakly minerotrophic fens |
Elevation | low to high elevations | low elevations |
Distribution |
AK; CT; GA; MA; MD; ME; MN; NC; NH; NY; PA; TN; VA; VT; WV; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; QC; Eurasia |
CT; DE; MA; MD; ME; NC; NH; NJ; NY; PA; RI; VA; VT; NB; NF; NS |
Discussion | Sporophytes are common in Sphagnum quinquefarium. This species is usually associated with S. capillifolium, S. girgensohnii, and S. russowii. No other species of sect. Acutifolia has the combination of quinquefarious branch leaves and three spreading branches per fascicle. Sphagnum rubiginosum has three spreading branches but the branch leaves are quite unranked and its lingulate stem leaf is quite distinct from the triangular stem leaf of S. quinquefarium. See also discussion under 86. S. talbotianum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Sporophytes of Sphagnum atlanticum are rare. The other large North American Atlantic coastal plain species of sect. Cuspidata, S. torreyanum, is typically more yellow, has a more rounded capitulum, and has straight rather than subsecund branch leaves. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 96. | FNA vol. 27, p. 65. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. acutifolium var. quinquefarium, S. schofieldii | |
Name authority | (Lindberg) Warnstorf: Hedwigia 25: 222. (1886) | R. E. Andrus: Bryologist 110: 274, figs. (2007) |
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