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

Boat Leaved Moss

The Boat-leaved Moss (Sphagnum cymbi folium), Ehrh.

Habit and habitat.-Common in bogs, robust, yellow-green or red, densely crowded when growing out of water, rarely floating, male plants slender with thick flower-clusters.

Name.-The specific name cymbifolium is compounded of two Latin words, cymba, a small boat, and folium, a leaf, referring to the branch-leaves. Stem solid, simple or two-parted; cortical cells in 3 to 4 layers; cluster-branches (fascicles), swollen, 4 to 5, 2 to 3 hanging, the rest curved.

Leaves.-Stem leaves large, tongue-shaped or spatulate, generally turned back from the stern; apex rounded and irregularly notched; branch-leaves broadly oval and boat-shaped, apex finely serrate and rough, densely overlapping; translucent cells (utricles) large, with spiral thickenings (fibrillose) and few pores, green cells (ducts) narrowly oval.

Leaves at the base of the spore-case (perichaetial leaves).-Small, oval.

Habit of flowering.-Male and female flowers on separate plants (dioicous), male branches rather thick, yellow-brown, red, or olive-green.

Veil (calyptra).-As in genus.

Spore-case. -Large, almost spherical, dark brown.

Pedicel.-As in genus.

Lid (operculum).-Saucer-like.

Teeth (peristome).-None.

Spores.-Rust-colour, mature in July.

Distribution. Universal.