Sphagnum margaritae H.A. Crum:
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Sphagnum gracile Michx.:
Canada (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Sphagnum capillifolium (Ehrh.) Hedw.:
Brazil (South America)
Greenland (North America)
Kazakhstan (Asia)
Canada (North America)
Colombia (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Sphagnum capillaceum (F.W. Weiss) Schrank:
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Sphagnum acutifolium Schrad.:
China (Asia)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Canada

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Distribution: China, India, Korea, Japan, Russian Far East, Europe, North and South America, and Africa.

Plants small to moderate-sized, compact to fairly slender, normally stiff and erect; capitulum typically hemispherical; in exposed sites red, mottled red and green, in shaded sites green forms are common; without metallic lustre when dry. Stems green to red; superficial cortical cells aporose Stem leaves lingulate-triangular, 1.2-1.6(-1.8) mm, apex ± involute; border entire and broadened to about 0.25 the width of the base; hyaline cells S-shaped, 0-1-septate, usually fibrillose in distal portion of leaf. Branches not 5-ranked, terete. Branch fascicles with 2 spreading and 1-2 pendent branches. Branch leaves ovate-lanceolate, 1-1.4 mm, imbricate to moderately spreading, concave, straight, strongly involute near apex; hyaline cells on convex surface with elliptic pores along commissures, concave surface with large round pores away from commissures in proximal portions of leaf. Sexual condition dioicous. Spores 20-28 µm; finely papillose on both surfaces, with distinct raised Y-shaped sculpture on distal surface; proximal laesura 0.5 spore radius or more.

Plants variable in size and color, usually green to yellowish brown, somewhat tinged with pinkish color, sometimes distinctly reddish, not shiny when dry, in loosely compact tufts. Stem cortex in 2–4 layers, hyaline cells thin-walled, without fibrils and pores; central cylinder yellowish or light reddish. Stem leaves differentiated in size on the same stem, generally larger in the lower parts and smaller in the upper parts of the stems, 1.0–1.5 mm × 0.4–0.7 mm, oblong-ovate to oblong-isosceles-triangular, upper margins involute to a nearly cucullate apex; borders narrow above, clearly widened below; hyaline cells broad-rhomboidal in the upper parts of leaves, mostly divided, narrow-rhomboidal below, less divided, with large pores on both surfaces. Branches in fascicles of 3–5, with 2–3 spreading. Branch leaves 0.9–1.4 mm × 0.4–0.5 mm, ovate-lanceolate, upper margins involute, with blunt, dentate apex; hyaline cells densely fibrillose, upper cells with pores at ends and at corners, lower cells and marginal cells with large pores on ventral surface, with numerous, ringed, elliptic pores in the upper cells, gradually enlarged in the lower cells on the dorsal surface; green cells in cross section triangular, exposed on the ventral surface. Dioicous or monoicous; branches with antheridia reddish; perigonial leaves short and broad with abruptly narrowed apex. Perichaetial leaves broadly ovate, abruptly involute-concave at the apex. Spores pale-yellowish, smooth or slightly papillose, 20–25 µm in diameter.

Sphagnum palustre var. capillifolium Ehrhart, Hannover Mag. 18: 235. 1780; S. capillaceum (Weiss) Schrank; S. capillifolium var. viride Jennings; S. margaritae H. A. Crum;

Sphagnum acutifolium Ehrh. ex Schrad., Spic. Fl. Germ. 58. 1794.  Sphagnum nemoreum Scop., Fl. Carniol., ed. 2, 305. 1772.

Habitat: in peatland under conifers or Rhododendron brush, on wet humus and the sides of hummocks.

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.


No available public DNA sequences.

Download FASTA File

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 1
Specimens with Barcodes: 2
Species With Barcodes: 1

Rounded Global Status Rank: GNR - Not Yet Ranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Comments: Somewhat threatened by land-use conversion, habitat fragmentation, forest management practices, and sedimentation (Southern Appalachian Species Viability Project 2002).

Sporophytes are fairly common in Sphagnum capillifolium. This species is most common and abundant in ombrotrophic heath vegetation associated with S. angustifolium, S. fallax, S. fuscum, S. magellanicum, S. rubellum, Polytrichum commune, and P. juniperinum. It can be distinguished from most other red species of sect. Acutifolia with which it co-occurs by its lack of 5-ranking in the branches. Sphagnum subtile is a forest and non-hummock forming species that has a distinctly shorter and more triangular-lingulate stem leaf. The stem leaf border on S. subtile is also more strongly bordered. Sphagnum tenerum, which geographically overlaps S. capillifolium only very minimally, has much more turgid branches and a generally more robust look. The stem leaf of S. tenerum is triangular-lingulate as compared to the lingulate- triangular stem leaf of S. capillifolium. See also discussion under 84. S. subnitens and 87. S. tenerum.

  

The names Sphagnum acutifolium Schrader and S. nemoreum Scopoli (doubtful name) have also been used for this taxon.

This species shows great variation. Numerous varieties have been published under this species complex. A clear distinction among the complex is difficult to make. Several varieties in the complex sometimes show their variation beyond species level. For example, when Warnstorf (1911) described the character of pore formation in Sphagnum capillifolium, he included nearly every type of pore formation found in the genus. In addition, certain authors consider the slender plants with pinkish to reddish color to be within the variation of this species. Thus, a number of species have been mistakenly included under synonymy of this species. A differentiation of the border of stem leaves is, however, a relatively stable feature. This feature is the same as that of Sphagnum girgensohnii and S. russowii. The latter two species differ in having their stem leaves broadly ligulate with flat, truncate leaf apices, while the stem-leaf apex in Sphagnum capillifolium is gradually acute and involute-cucullate.

Comments: Newly described species from Missouri.