Sphagnum wulfianum |
Sphagnum mississippiense |
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wulf's sphagnum |
Mississippi sphagnum |
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Habit | Plants small, short and weak-stemmed, compact and sprawling in thin mats, green to pale yellow. | |
Stem(s) | 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. |
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Branches | unranked, often blunt and with leaves moderately elongated at distal end. |
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Branch leaves | with chlorophyllous cells often with faint papillae on interior walls. |
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 | probably dioicous. |
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Spores | not seen. |
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Branch | fascicles with 2–3 spreading and 0–2 pendent branches.; branch stems green, with cortex enlarged with conspicuous retort cells. |
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Sphagnum wulfianum |
Sphagnum mississippiense |
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Habitat | Coniferous forests, and occasionally in Alnus or Salix karrs | Mats in seasonally wet depressions in coastal plain |
Elevation | low to moderate elevations | low elevations |
Distribution |
CT; IL; IN; MA; ME; MI; MN; NH; NY; OH; PA; RI; VT; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; QC; Greenland; Eurasia |
LA; MS; NJ |
Discussion | The sporophytes of Sphagnum wulfianum are moderately common. This is the most dry-growing species in North America, typically growing in association with Sphagnum centrale, S. girgensohnii, S. russowii, and S. squarrosum. It is easily recognized as the only species that regularly has more than six branches per fascicle. The Lycopodium clavatum-like growth habit and conifer swamp habitat along with the strongly 5-ranked branch leaves make it even easier to recognize in the field. (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. 85. | FNA vol. 27, p. 73. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Girgensohn: Arch. Naturk. Liv- Ehst- Kurlands, Ser. 2, Biol. Naturk. 2: 173. (1860) | R. E. Andrus: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 45: 237. 1987 (as mississippiensis), |
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