Plants coarse and robust; usually found floating, submerged or stranded; capitulum not apparent, leaves crowded into a tuft; deep green throughout or dark reddish brown to blackish brown with yellowish branch tips when wet and shiny pale green to straw colored or brown when dry. Stems green to brownish, superficial cortex of 2--3 layers of inflated, thin-walled, efibrillose, non-ornamented, aporose cells. Stem leaves much smaller than branch leaves, broadly triangular with a rounded apex, border entire, hyaline cells rhomboidal, efibrillose and non-ornamented; convex surface aporose; concave surface with 0--5 round or oblong pores with either 1 central pore or pores in a single row. Branches more or less monomorphic. Branch fascicles with 2--3 branches. Branch stems green, surrounded by 1--3 layers of enlarged, thin-walled, efibrillose, non-ornamented, mostly aporose cells; Branch leaves lanceolate, linear-lanceolate to ovate-ligulate, apex tubular and involute or flat and rounded, with numerous small pores (8--60 per cell) on the convex surface in 1--3 irregular rows, nearly aporose on the concave surface; chlorophyllous cells rectangular in transverse section and equally exposed on both surfaces. Sexual condition dioicous. Capsules with few pseudostomata or pseudostomata absent. Spores 25--35 µm; smooth to finely papillose on proximal and distal surfaces, conspicuous bifurcated Y-mark sculpture on distal surface; proximal laesura less than 0.5 spore radius.

Lower Taxa

• Sphagnum cribrosum H. Lindberg
• Sphagnum macrophyllum Bridel

Related Synonym(s):

• Isocladus macrophyllus (Bridel) Lindberg = Sphagnum macrophyllum Bridel
• Sphagnum floridanum (Austin) Cardot = Sphagnum cribrosum H. Lindberg
• Sphagnum macrophyllum var. burinense W. S. G. Maas = Sphagnum macrophyllum Bridel
• Sphagnum macrophyllum var. floridanum Austin = Sphagnum cribrosum H. Lindberg