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Sphagnum magellanicum
The reddish, robust, and turgid plants are key features of S. magellanicum. Macrofossil characteristics include clear to pinkish stems with fibrose and porose cells composing the hyalodermis, and very concave, entire branch leaves that have numerous pores on relatively short hyaline cells and totally enclosed green cells without wall ornamentation. Other robust and turgid species of the Section Sphagnum (all of these have hooded, entire branch leaves) are S. palustre and S. henryense with smooth, triangular green cells, S. papillosum with trapezoidal-triangular green cells with papillose adjacent walls; and S. imbricatum and S. austinii with broadly triangular green cells and adjacent walls with striations. Also, S. centrale has elliptic green cells with thickened walls exposed on both leaf surfaces.
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Clockwise from top left , S. magellanicum in the field, branch leaf, convex cells, concave cells, stem leaf |
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| Habit | Large, turgid, reddish plants forming dense canopies, 0-1 pendent branches visible between capitulum arms. |
| Stems | pink to clear, with porose and fibrose hyalodermis. |
| Leaves | ovate-ellipitic, hooded, and entire at apex, convex surface just below apex with denticulations due to resorption of apical portions of hyaline cells; stem leaves lingulate, with hyaline cells not divided and mostly without fibrils or pores, resorbed on convex surface. |
| Leaf Cells | hyaline cells short, nearly plane or only slightly bulging on both surfaces, with numerous elliptic pores on convex surface and inconspicuous rounded pores on concave surface; green cells elliptic, completely enclosed by hyaline cells, adjoining hyaline cells walls smooth. |
| Alar Cells | |
| Habitat | Forming small hummocks or occurring on the sides of high hummocks in bogs, sometimes on low hummocks and strings in poor fens. |
| Common Associates | Found in oligotrophic habitats with S. fuscum and S. angustifolium, or S. fallax. |
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