Sphagnum quinquefarium |
Sphagnum cribrosum |
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five-rank peat-moss, 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 green, light brown to brown. |
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. |
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Branches | usually strongly 5-ranked. |
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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-ligulate, apex broad, rounded, and truncate, hyaline cells with 20–40 small (less than 0.25 cell diameter) in mostly 2 rows. |
Sexual condition | monoicous or dioicous. |
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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. |
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Sphagnum quinquefarium |
Sphagnum cribrosum |
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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 | Floating or stranded at margins of shallow acidic lakes and ponds |
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 |
FL; GA; MD; NC; SC |
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.) |
Besides having different branch leaf porosity, Sphagnum cribrosum is usually distinguishable from the closely related S. macrophyllum by its paler brown color and distinctly broader and more truncate branch leaves. “Wave forms” of both S. cribrosum and S. macrophyllum, seemingly developed in response to growing in shallow water where wave action is common, can have very odd phenotypes that may look more like Fontinalis than Sphagnum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 96. | FNA vol. 27, p. 61. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. acutifolium var. quinquefarium, S. schofieldii | S. floridanum, S. macrophyllum var. floridanum |
Name authority | (Lindberg) Warnstorf: Hedwigia 25: 222. (1886) | Lindberg: Eur. Hvitmoss., 74. (1882) |
Web links |