Magellan's Sphagnum

As the only boreal species of the section with a reddish purple color, Sphagnum magellanicum is usually easy to identify. The branch leaf chlorophyll cells are capable of being confused only with those of S. alaskense, which are less enclosed on both surfaces, and S. centrale, which has thickened end walls on the chlorophyll cells that give them a narrow exposure on the concave surface.

Plants rather robust, stout, pale yellowish green to yellowish brown, young branch tips often tinged with purple, in loose or compact tufts. Stem cortex in 3–5 layers, hyaline cells large, fibrillose, each with 1–4 large, rounded pores; central cylinder pinkish or reddish brown. Stem leaves 1.0–2.0 mm × 0.7–0.8 mm, lingulate, broadened at the apex, borders hyaline and differentiated, often involute; hyaline cells undivided, densely fibrillose, with many pores at the opposite ends in the upper half of the leaves, in the lower half fibrils indistinct, with large, central pores. Branches in fascicles of 4–5, with 2–3 spreading, hyaline cells with fibrils and pores. Branch leaves 1.4–2.0 mm × 1.1–1.3 mm, rounded ovate, imbricate, deeply cucullate-concave, dorsally roughened and rounded at the apex; hyaline cells with large, rounded pores on the ventral surface, mostly with ringed pores at the opposite ends on the dorsal surface; green cells in cross section elliptic, centrally located, entirely enclosed by large, hyaline cells on both surfaces. Dioicous; antheridial branches purple red; perigonial leaves large, broadly ovate. Spores pinkish, densely papillose, 24–28 µm in diameter.

Plants moderate-sized to robust, somewhat lax in shade forms to quite compact and stiff in open grown forms; green to pinkish green to reddish purple; forms lawns in shaded habitats and low to moderately tall, dense hummocks in open habitats. Stems green to purplish red, superficial cortical cells with spiral reinforcing fibrils clearly visible, usually 1 or 2 pores per cell, comb-fibrils lacking on interior wall. Stem leaves to 2 × 0.7 mm; rarely hemiisophyllous; hyaline cells non-ornamented, mostly nonseptate. Branches long and tapering to short and pointed, leaves loosely imbricate. Branch fascicles with 2-3 spreading and 2-3 pendent branches. Branch stems with hyaline cells non-ornamented; no or weak funnel-like projections on the interior end walls, large round pores on superficial cell walls. Branch leaves broadly ovate, to 2 × 1 mm or more wide, broadly ovate, hyaline cells non-ornamented, convex surface with round to elliptic pores along the commissures; chlorophyllous cells short-elliptic in transverse section and well-enclosed on both surfaces. Sexual condition dioicous. Capsule with numerous pseudostomata. Spores 22-30 µm; roughly papillose to nearly smooth, with distinct Y-mark sculpture on distal surface; proximal laesura 0.5-0.8 spore radius.

Distribution: China, Himalayas, India, Indonesia, Russia (Siberia), Europe, North, Central, and South America, and Africa.

Habitat: in peatland or on wet ground under coniferous forests, or on wet soil under Rhododendron brush.

Sphagnum medium Limpr., Bot. Centralbl. 7: 313. 1881.

Sphagnum magellanicum Brid. Muse. Recent. 2' : 24. 1798
^ sphagnum iuhhieolor H.impc, I-'lora 63 440. 1880.
Sphagnum mrdium Limpr. Hoi. Ccnir. 7: 313. 1881.
Sphagnum inter medium Kussow, Arch. Nat. Dorpat 10: 468. 1894.
Sphagnum cenlrate C. Jens. Bib. Sv. Vct.-Akad. Handl. 21i»: 34. 1896.
Plants compact to rotnist, brightgreen or variously tinged with brownish, red-brown or more commonly pink to purpk-rtd. Wwjd-cyhndcr red or sometimes l)rown; cortical cells of the stem in 3-4 layers, their walls very thin, reinforced by weak fibril-bands, the outer cells of varying shape and size, their pores rather large, round or often laterally elongate, 1 or 2 in each cell: stem-leaves large, long-lingulate to lingulate-spatulate, the border denticulate, hyaline only at the immediate apex; hyaline cells not divided, fibrillose only in the apical part of the leaf or not at all, the membrane largely resorbed on the outer surface: branches frequently short, in fascicles of 4 or 5, 2 spreading, their cortical cells in a single layer, with the basal walls plane; cell-walls reinforced inwardly by fibril-bands, the outer wall frequently with a large round pore at the upper end: branch-leaves imbricate or spreading, broadly ovate, the border denticulate especially toward the apex ; hyaline cells fibrillose with weak fibril-bands, rhomboidal, 4-7 times as long as wide, often much shorter above, on the inner surface with very few pores confined to the apical and lateral regions where they occur in the corners of the cells, on the outer surface with rather numerous large elliptic pores in the cell-corners and along the commissures, 4-10 per cell, fewer in short cells near the apex, passing into single membrane-gaps of the apex; chlorophyl-cells elliptic in section, entirely enclosed or rarely sUghtly exposed on the inner or both surfaces, walls of the empty cells smooth; hyaline cells hardly convex on the inner surface and slightly if at all so on the outer, at most about one eighth of the diameter of the cell ; resorption-fiuTow present.
Dioicous. Antheridial branches and leaves hardly differentiated, the latter slightly more pigmented than the others (red or brown). Fruiting branches erect, often elongate; perichaetial leaves ovate, the upper two-thirds and the border nearly to the base of normal structure with hyaline cells fibrillose and porose, the remaining portion consisting of uniform narrow cells with pitted walls: capsule dark-brown: spores brown-yellow, 25-30 m in diameter, minutely papillose.
Type locality: Region of Magellan Straits in South America.
Distribution: Labrador southward to Alabama and Florida; Michigan; Minnesota; California; Vancouver Island to Alaska; Bermuda; also in Europe, Asia, and South America.

Sphagnum magellanicum, commonly called Magellanic bogmoss, Magellan's sphagnum, Magellan's peatmoss or midway peat moss, is a widespread species of moss found in wet boreal forest in the far south and southwest of South America, North America and Eurasia.