BFNA | Family List | Sphagnaceae | Sphagnum

Taxon in Process: Sphagnum Species G

Plants small to moderate-sized; capitulum flat-topped, small to moderate-sized; color brown to golden brown with a purplish tinge and a strong metallic sheen when dry. Stems brown to dark brown; superficial cortical cells aporose. Stem leaves lingulate to slightly triangular-lingulate, 0.9-1.3 mm, apex obtuse to rounded and typically fimbriate; border narrow and little broadened at the base; hyaline cells once or more septate, often with multiple parallel septations in side regions near margins; usually efibrillose. Branches more or less 5-ranked. Branch fascicles with 2 spreading and 1--2 pendent branches. Branch leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1--1.1 mm, moderately concave and varying from straight to often subsecund, border entire; hyaline cells on convex surface with round pores alomg the commissures, grading from small pores near the apex to larger pores at the base; concave surface with a few large round pores in apical and side regions. Sexual condition unknown. Sporophytes unknown. Spores unknown.

Forming hummocks in medium fen tundra mires; Alaska.