Specimen #5: Sphagnum palustre

Collection #: 5

Scientific Name: Sphagnum palustre

Phylum: Bryophyta; Spagnopsida

Order: Spagnales

Family: Spagnaceae

Common Name: Blunt-leaved peat moss

Location: Trangle Lake area

Habitat: Wet bog area near the board walk

Date of collecting: September 10th

Collector: Cornelia

Notes: Very special look, weird moss; smells really good when wet.

How did I key this out:

Fig.1 Group picture                                                                              Fig.2 Single plant

Sphagnum is a very different type of moss compare with the others. The "peat moss" growth form is the only growth form that Sphagnum has--or in other words, a peat moss can only be a Sphagnum. From both of the pictures above (Fig.1 and Fig.2), we could see that for this specimen the characteristics for Sphagnum/peat moss is pretty clear. By knowing this fact, we could now go to the key: KEY XII: Peat Mosses

The following steps is how I went through the keys:
1. (A) Branch leaves with margins strongly incurved, forming a blunt hooded tip (See Fig.3 for this fact.); stem cross-section with conspicuous cortex, about ⅓-½ diameter of stem; branches plump, worm-like. (See Fig.4 and Fig.5 for this fact.) (2)
2. (B) Plants green, tellowish, or brownish; lacking any red, pink, or purple. (See Fig.1, Fig.2, Fig.5 for this fact.) (4)
4. (A) Plants green to tellowish brown, typically in forests, sedge meadows, or at margin of ponds, streams, or bogs (See Fig.1, Fig.2 and Fig.5 and "Habitat" for these facts.); spreading branches usually with tapering ends. (Sphagnum palustre, P325)






Fig.3 Picture of branch leaves

Fig.4 Single branch

Fig.5 Single plant with ruler

Fig.6 Cell structure

Description of the species:
Appearance: Plants are large, upright, 8-25 cm tall, (See Fig.5 for this fact.) forming carpets and hummocks; green to yellowish brown, sometimes with a pink blush (but never purplish red). Apical head with plump worm-like branches with tapered ends (See Fig.2, Fig.4 and Fig.5 for this fact.).
Leaves: Branch leaves are 2-3 mm long, egg-shaped, margins in-rolled above, forming a blunt hooded apex, sometimes with the tips bent away from the branch at up to a 45-degree angle. Stem leaves are 1-2 mm long, tongue-shaped. Margins are without teeth. No midrib.
Capsules: Uncommon, brown to black, spherical, about 2 mm in diameter.
Habitat: Swampy coniferous and hardwood forests, forested fens, sedge meadows, and at the margins of streams, be and ponds; more typically shaded than in full sun.
Microscopic features: Outer cells of stems and branches have delicate spiral wall thickenings visible with staining. Green cells of branch leaves in S. palustre and S. papillosum are triangular and exposed more broadly on the concave surface. In S. magellanicum,they are elliptical, lie midway between convex surfaces, unexposed. Pores are numerous and large on the convex surface in S. palustre, fewer on concave. In the Other two species pores are few to none on both surfaces.

Collecting and keying story:

Sphagnums are interesting. They doesn't look like mosses at all. They are usually giant, and always live in a bog area. Before we went to the field trip when I collected this sample, Willa told us that the whole Triangle Lake area looks like a completely different world. When we stepped onto the board walk, we knew exactly what she meant. All the different species of plants we have here are different from anywhere else in Ohio, and the side of the boardwalk was filled with millions of sphagnum mosses. That was literally the first day I've ever seen a sphagnum, and they looked so different and smelled so good. I noticed a small color difference between two groups of plants, so I collected a sample of both of them, and later on proved that they were different types of sphagnums. For further information about that, please see Specimen #6.


Phylum, order and family name cited from:
http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=SPPA70

Keys cited from:

  Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians by Karl B. McKnight, Joseph R. Rohrer, Kirsten McKnight Ward and Warren J. Perdrizet. This book is in the series of the Princeton Field Guides and was published by Princeton University Press with copyright @ 2013.