Sphagnum plumulosum

Sphagnum plumulosum Roll, Flora 69: 89. 1886
Sphagnum subnilens Russow & Warnst.; Warnst. Verb. Bot. Ver. Prov. Brand. 30: 115. 1888. Sphagnum nitidum Warnst. Allg. Bot. Zcils. 1: 94. 1895.
Plants usually robust, greenish or yellowish, frequently more or less tinged with brown which passes to purplish, the leaves often displaying somewhat of a metallic luster. Woodcylinder greenish or slightly tinted brown; cortical cells of the stem in 3-4 layers, large and thin-walled, without fibrils, the outer cells quadrilateral to irregularly pentagonal, often as wide as long, without pores: stem-leaves large, elongate-triangular, mostly twice as long as wide or more, abruptly involute-pointed, toothed across the broadly truncate apex, the border strong, broadened in the basal angles, the walls of its cells strongly pitted; hyaline cells rhomboidal, 4-6 times as long as wide in the apical part, narrower below aid toward the •ides, without fibrils, mostly once or several times divided, the membrane on the inner surface mostly resorbed in large gaps, on the outer surface entire with longitudinal membrane-pleats; branches in fascicles of 3-5, generally 2 spreading, their cortical cells in a single layer, without fibrils, the retort-cells not prominent, with inconspicuous necks: branch-leaves loosely imbricate or spreading to slightly squarrose, large, ovate-lanceolate, involute above in a long sharp point to a toothed apex, the border entire, of 2-3 rows of narrow cells; hyaline cells fibrillose, narrowly rhomboidal near the base where 10-14 times as long as wide, shorter above to 6-8 times in the apex, on the inner surface with only minute pores in the ends of the cells and larger round pores in the cells of the side-region, 1-4 per cell, on the outer surface with large elliptic pores near the commissures, 4—10 per cell: chlorophyl-cells triangular to trapezoidal in section, more broadly exposed on the inner surface, the lumen triangular; hyaline cells slightly convex on the inner surface, more strongly so on the outer, up to twothirds of the diameter of the cell or more.
Monoicous or dioicous. Antheridia in catkins on spreading branches; antheridial leaves pigmented purplish-brown. Fruiting branches erect, short; perichaetial leaves ovate to obovate, abruptly involute at the apex, with both kinds of cells in the upper middle portion, the hyaline cells small, rhomboidal, regularly once to several times divided, without fibrils or pores : capsule dark-brown : spores brown-yellow, 20-25 fi in diameter, papillose.
Type locality: Europe.
Distribution: Greenland and Labrador to New Jersey; California; Vancouver Island; also in Europe and Asia.