Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Peat Mosses > Acute Leaved Peat Moss

Acute Leaved Peat Moss

Acute Leaved Peat MossSphagnum acutifolium, Ehrh.

Habit and habitat.-Green or purple or red, common in open, shaded bogs, in valleys or on mountains; many varieties are noted; the variations due to their special habitat.

Name.-The specific name acutifolium is compounded of two Latin words acutus, sharp, and folium, a leaf, referring to the apex of the leaf.

Plants (gametophyte).-Stem without pores in the triple layer of cells which form the outer covering; cluster branches spreading, 3 to 5, one to two pendent.

Leaves.-Stern-leaves large, erect, oval or tongue-shaped; apex irregularly notched; with the large cells lined with a few or no spiral thickenings; branch-leaves deeply concave, erect, oval lance-shaped and awl-shaped, apex toothed; margin in-rolled.

Habit of flowering.-Male and female flowers on the same plant (monoicous) or on separate plants (dioicous); male branches usually red.

Leaves at the base of the spore-case (perichaetial leaves).-Oblong, gradually narrowed to a point, apex sinuous, toothed, recurved.

Spore-case.-Numerous, on long false pedicels.

Spores.-Rust-colour, mature in July.

Distribution. --Universal.