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Sphagnum balticum
This species resembles S. angustifolium, but is differentiated by larger, more rounded, and more abundant stem leaves; also the spaces between capitulum arms have only one pendent branch evident. Microscopically, I find few differences between this species and S. angustifolium -- perhaps the apical pore is better defined in the latter species, but I am not convinced these two species can be identified by branch leaves alone.
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| Habit | Forming loose mounds, plants soft yellow-brown, with no obvious apical bud and one pendent branch visible between capitulum arms. |
| Stems | Clear, with hyalodermis not well differentiated. |
| Leaves | Ovate-lanceolate and narrowed to a narrowly truncate apex, often undulate in capitulum; stem leaves relatively large, shortly oblong to triangular-oblong, blunt and concave – appearing triangular, usually numerous and bent downward along the stem, with fibrillose, hyaline cells having partially resorbed pores in the upper portion. |
| Leaf Cells | Hyaline cells of the convex surface of the branch leaves with a large apical pore and variable number of pores in the cell corners, sometimes a few pores along the cell edges, on the concave surface with a few indistinct, unringed pores in the cell corners, green cells triangular, and not reaching the concave surface, exposed only on the convex surface. |
| Habitat | In northern North America this species is infrequent on hummocks in peat plateaus and rare southward where it it occurs intermixed with S. fuscum and S magellanicum, and occurring in drier habitats than S. angustifolium, however in Eurasia it also occurs in lawns in unfrozen peatlands. |
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