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Sphagnum fallax
The apiculate, entire stem leaves define this species. The branch leaf pore pattern is similar to that of S. angustifolium and S. balticum (the latter differentiated by green cell transverse section). Sphagnum fallax is subcontinental and temperate in distribution, and becomes rare in continental, boreal areas.
Historically, and especially in North America, the name S. recurvum has been applied in a broad sense to include S. angustifolium, S. fallax, and S. flexuosum (as well as S. recurvum sensu stricto) – all differentiated by stem leaf features.
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Above, Sphagnum fallax in the field |
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| Habit | Large, but slender plants in yellow-green to green-brown, loose lawns, with small apical bud and two pendent branches visible between capitulum arms. |
| Stems | without enlarged hyalodermis, central core clear to green. |
| Leaves | ovate-lanceolate and narrowed to acuminate, narrowly truncate apex, often undulate when dry; stem leaves oblong-triangular and apiculate, not erose at tip, without fibrils and pores. |
| Leaf Cells | of convex surface of branch leaves few, consisting of one rather large rounded to elliptic apical pore and sometimes a few smaller pores restricted to the cell corners, on the concave surface several indistinct, unringed pores along the cell edges, green cells triangular and reaching the concave surface, exposed broadly on the convex surface. |
| Alar Cells | |
| Habitat | Wet lawns in poor fens and in oceanic areas in bog hollows. This species appears to tolerate high nutrient levels and occupies more nutrient rich sites then others of the group. |
| Common Associates |
pH Meter
