Sphagnum

Sphagnum fuscum (Schimp.) H. Klinggr. Schr. Phys.-ok. Ges
Konig.sb. 13 : 4. 1872.
Sphagnum aculifolium fuscum Schimp. M6m. Sphaig. 64. 1857. Sphagnum vancouveriense Wa.mst. Hedw/igia. 33: 309. 1894. Sphagnum tenuifolium Warnst. AUg. Bot. Zeits. 1: 115. 1895.
Plants generally slender and delicate, compactly matted, sometimes fairly robust, usually brown, sometimes merely tinged with brown or even entirely green. Wood-cylinder brown; cortical cells of the stem in 2-4 layers, large, thin-walled, without fibrils, the outer cells quadrilateral to hexagonal, nearly as wide as long, without pores: stem-leaves medium-sized, lingulate, up to twice as long as wide, slightly concave, the border strong, much broadened near the base, its cells narrow with pitted walls; hyaline cells rhomboidal, 3-4 times as long as wide in the apical part, longer and narrower toward the base and sides, mostly once divided, usually without fibrils, on the inner surface the membrane nearly all resorbed, on the outer surface entire with longitudinal membrane-pleats: branches in fascicles of 3-5, 2 normally spreading, their cortical cells in a single layer without fibrils, the retort-cells well developed with conspicuous necks: branch-leaves regularly imbricate or somewhat spreading, small, narrowly lanceolate, involute toward the toothed apex, the border entire, of 2-3 rows of narrow cells; hyaline cells fibrillose, narrowly rhomboidal, 8-12 times as long as wide near the base, shorter above to 6-8 times, on the inner surface with pores in the ends, sometimes also in the sidecorners, 2-4 per cell, on the outer surface with larger or smaller elliptic pores near the commissures in the apical part of the leaf, increasing in size toward the base, 3-8 per cell : chlorophyl-cells triangular or rarely trapezoidal in section with broader exposure on the inner surface, the lumen small, triangular; hyaline cells slightly if at all convex on the inner surface, strongly so on the outer, up to half the diameter of the cell near the base of the leaf, much less in the apical part.
Dioicous. Antheridia in catkins on spreading branches; antheridial leaves brown, smaller than the normal branch-leaves, broadly ovate, the hyaline cells of the basal half without fibrils or pores. Fruiting branches erect, short; perichaetial leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, obtuse or slightly acute at the apex, with both kinds of cells in the upper half or two thirds except in the immediate apex, the hyaline cells without fibrils or pores, often once divided, showing longitudinal membrane-pleats: capsule brown: spores yellow, 20-25 n in diameter, smooth or nearly so.
Type locality: Europe.
Distribution: Greenland and Labrador to Connecticut and New York; Michigan; Minnesota; Montana; Colorado; Washington northward to Alaska; also in Europe and reported from Asia.