Sphagnum khasianum Mitt.

Plants small, stiff, 3–7 cm high, pale yellow, tinged with brownish purple, in loose tufts. Stem cortex in 1 layer, hyaline cells large, thin-walled, without fibrils, with pores; central cylinder yellowish red. Stem leaves 1.0–1.2 mm × 0.5–0.8 mm, ovate-triangular, rounded, cucullate, dentate at the apex; margins slightly involute, borders narrowly differentiated; hyaline cells undivided, fibrillose in the upper half, sometimes to the base, with small pores at the upper angles on the ventral surface, pores on the opposite pairs along commissural rows on the dorsal surface. Branches in fascicles of 3, with 2 spreading. Branch leaves 1.0–1.6 mm × 0.6–1.0 mm, broadly ovate, nearly circular, concave, margins involute, slightly secund in the upper parts, rounded, denticulate at the apex; hyaline cells linear-rhomboidal, with pores in the opposite pairs along commissural rows on the dorsal surface, small pores at the upper corners on the ventral surface; green cells in cross section narrowly rectangular, centrally located, thick-walled, exposed on both surfaces. Dioicous. Sporophytes not seen.

Distribution: China, Himalayas, India, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Habitat: in bogs, on wet ground, humic soil near streams or on rocks under dripping water.

Sphagnum subsecundum Nees Strum. var. khasianum (Mitt.) C. Jens. ex Broth. in Handel-Mazzetti, Symb. Sin. 4: 8. 1929.