Sphagnum squarrosum |
Sphagnum lindbergii |
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rough peat moss, shaggy peat, sphagnum, spiky bog-moss, spread-leaf peat moss, spreading-leaf bog moss |
brown-stem peat-moss, Lindberg's sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants robust, stiff; green, pale green, yellow-green; large terminal bud; typically as loose carpets in coniferous forests. | Plants moderate-sized to large, moderately densely branched; green to brown, often bluish tinged and/or shiny when dry; capitulum flattopped with a conspicuous terminal bud. |
Stem(s) | green to red-brown; 2–3 superficial cortical layers.; stem leaves shorter than branch leaves, ovate-lingulate to oblong-lingulate, 1.6–1.8 × 1–1.2 mm; hyaline cells mostly nonseptate. |
leaves lingulate-spatulate, large, 1.3–1.6 mm; appressed to stem; apex very broad and lacerate; hyaline cells efibrillose and aporose, often septate. |
Branches | long and tapering with distinct squarrose spreading leaves, often terete in tundra forms. |
strongly 5-ranked and straight. |
Branch leaves | larger than stem leaves, 1.9–2.8 mm, conspicuously squarrose from ovate-hastate base and abruptly narrowed 1/2–1/3 distance from apex into involute-concave acumen, often terete in tundra forms; hyaline cells convex on both surfaces, non-ringed pores at ends and corners of cells, ringed pores on concave surface (4–8/cell) and nonringed pores (2–4/cell) on convex surface, internal commissural walls smooth or indistinctly papillose, chlorophyllous cells ovate triangular with widest part at or close to the convex surface. |
ovate-lanceolate, 1.5–3 mm; straight to slightly subsecund; imbricate to somewhat reflexed and not undulate; margins entire; hyaline cells long and narrow, length to width ca. 10:1 on convex surface with 1 or more small pores in the cell ends and angles and often with numerous pseudopores along the margins, on concave surface with large round wall thinnings on the cell ends and angles; chlorophyllous cells triangular to trapezoidal in transverse section, apex often exposed on concave surface. |
Sexual condition | monoicous. |
monoicous or dioicous. |
Spores | 17–30 µm; proximal surface finely papillose, distal surface smooth with raised bifurcated Y-mark sculpture; proximal laesura more than 0.5 spore radius. |
22–34 µm; both surfaces smooth, apparent ridged border on proximal surface; proximal laesura more than 0.5 spore radius. |
Branch | fascicles with 2 spreading and 2–3 pendent branches.; branch stems with 1–2 layers of cortical cells. |
fascicles with 2 spreading and 2 pendent branches, leaves not much elongated at distal end.; branch stems green, with cortex enlarged with retort cells. |
Sphagnum squarrosum |
Sphagnum lindbergii |
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Phenology | Sporophytes abundant, capsules mature early to mid summer. | |
Habitat | Forming loose carpets in rich habitats such as wet coniferous forests, Thuja swamps, karrs, medium fens, and stream margins | Widespread forming carpets in ombrotrophic to weakly minerotrophic boreal mires |
Elevation | low to high elevations | low to high elevations |
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; CT; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; ME; MI; MN; MT; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OR; PA; SD; TN; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Greenland; Eurasia; Pacific Islands (New Zealand)
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AK; CO; NH; NY; WA; AB; BC; MB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; QC; YT; Greenland; Eurasia |
Discussion | In its typical robust form with strongly squarrose branch leaves, Sphagnum squarrosum is unmistakeable. Smaller forms such as occur in the higher mountains may be difficult to identify accurately without careful examination of microscopic details. In the tundra there sometimes occur large, terete forms of S. squarrosum but these are usually considerably more robust than S. teres. See also discussion under 14. S. strictum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Sporophytes are uncommon. Sphagnum lindbergii is normally easily distinguished from other carpet-forming species of sect. Cuspidata by its large, strongly lacerate stem leaf and dark brown to black stem. Sexual condition is taken from from L. I. Savicz-Lubitzkaya and Z. N. Smirnova (1968). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 59. | FNA vol. 27, p. 70. |
Parent taxa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Squarrosa | Sphagnaceae > Sphagnum > sect. Cuspidata |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. squarrosum var. imbricatum | |
Name authority | Crome: Samml. Deut. Laubm., 24. (1803) | Schimper: Öfvers. Kongl. Vetensk.-Akad. Förh. 14: 126. (1857) |
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