Monoicous. Plants delicate to robust, pale yellowish green to light green, finely branched; capitulum well defined. Stem cortical cells in 1 or 2 layers, sometimes indistinct, elongate, lacking pores or fibrils; internal cylinder greenish to yellowish. Branches in fascicles of 3 or 4, 1 or 2 spreading branches, 1 or 2 pendent branches ±similar to well differentiated; branch cortical cells in 1 layer, the retort cells clearly differentiated and with a weakly protruding distal pore, elongate. Branch leaves ovate-lanceolate; apex narrow, toothed across the apex; margin ±undulate, inrolled towards the apex; with a border of 2 or 3 rows of narrow elongate cells; hyaline cells elongate; adaxial surface pores/pseudopores few, 1–8 or occasionally more, terminal or lateral at junction of cells; abaxial surface pores 2–8, unringed, along the lateral commissures, mostly at junctions of cells; chlorophyllose cells trapezoidal in section, exposed more widely on abaxial surface; commissural walls smooth. Stem leaves erect, spreading or pendent, broadly triangular to ±lingulate, bordered; hyaline cells fibrillose in upper part, efibrillose in the lower half, with 4–8 adaxial pores per cell in upper fibrillose cells.

Native.

Occurs in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Also in Macquarie Island, New Zealand and South America.

Grows usually in wet habitats from near sea level to subalpine, often in water where the plants can assume a particularly feathery appearance.

Sphagnum falcatulum Besch., Bull. Soc. Bot. France 32: LXVII (1885). Type: Île Hoste, Cape Horn, 1883, Hyades; holoype: n.v.

Taxonomic synonyms

Sphagnum serrulatum Warnst., Hedwigia 32: 1 (1893). Type: Zeehan Railway, Zeehan, Tas., 9 Feb. 1891, W.A.Weymouth 622; holo: H-BR; iso: NSW.

Sphagnum lancifolium Müll.Hal. & Warnst., Hedwigia 36: 154 (1897). Type: Sydney, [N.S.W.], Nov. 1893, T.Whitelegge; holo: B, presumably destroyed.

Sphagnum wattsii Warnst., Bot. Centralbl. 76: 421 (1898). Type: Richmond R., [N.S.W.], Sept. 1898, W.W.Watts 1113, 1024; syn: H-BR.

Sphagnum serratifolium Warnst., Bot. Centralbl. 82: 72 (1900). Type: Tyagarah Rd, Byron Bay, N.S.W., Aug. 1899, W.W.Watts 3086; holo: H-BR.

Sphagnum brotherusii Warnst., Bot. Centralbl. 82: 74 (1900). Type: Tyagarah Rd, Byron Bay, N.S.W., W.W.Watts 3075, 3085; syn: H-BR; E of Ballina, N.S.W., Sept. 1898, W.W.Watts 2273; syn: H-BR.

Sphagnum drepanocladum Warnst., Bot. Centralbl. 82: 75 (1900). Type: Whaws Bay, Ballina, N.S.W., Apr. 1899, W.W.Watts 2851; holo: H-BR; iso: NSW.

Sphagnum trichophyllum Warnst., Hedwigia 39: 100 (1900). Type: Mt Wellington [Tas.], 25 Dec. 1887, R.A.Bastow 2213; H-BR.

Sphagnum serratum Austin var. serrulatum (Schlieph.) Warnst., Pflanzenreich 51: 247 (1911), nom. illeg. (later homonym).

Sphagnum brotherusii Warnst. var. plumosulum Warnst., Pflanzenreich 51: 248 (1911). Type: s. loc., N.S.W., W.W.Watts 4265; syn?: NSW.

Sphagnum wattsii Warnst. var. leptocladum Warnst., Pflanzenreich 51: 272 (1911). Type: Richmond River, N.S.W., W.W.Watts 5606; syn?: NSW.

Sphagnum wattsii Warnst. var. macrophyllum Warnst., Pflanzenreich 51: 272 (1911). Type: Newcastle, N.S.W., Murson 4521 ex Herb. Watts; syn?: NSW.

Sphagnum rodwayi Warnst., in L.Rodway, Pap. & Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania 1913: 257 (1914). Type: Strickland, Tas.; syn: HO, NSW.

N.S.W.: Mt Budawang, E.F.Constable 6967 (NSW).

Vic.: Mt Clay State Forest, A.C.Beauglehole 4471 (MEL); La Trobe River, Powelltown, Oct. 1929, J.H.Willis (MEL).

Tas.: Blue Tier, W.A.Weymouth 2397 (HO).

Scott & Stone (1976, p. 60) reported this species from Queensland, but I have not seen any specimens from that State.

Rodway (1914) incorrectly attributed the name Sphagnum cuspidatum Ehrh. ex Hoffm., to specimens from Macquarie Harbour and Mt Wellington in Tasmania, and this misidentification has been perpetuated in the literature (Scott & Stone, 1976; Streimann & Curnow, 1989; Dalton et al., 1991). Rodway’s description is confused as it appears to be based on two distinct taxa, S. falcatulum and S. novozelandicum. The chlorocysts being in section “obtusely wedge shaped, the convex base free on the external surface” is characteristic of the former species while the hyalocysts having pores “small, circular, … many along both margins” suggests the latter. Willis (1953) correctly referred S. cuspidatum sensu Warnstorf (1911) to S. falcatulum. Sphagnum cuspidatum is primarily a Northern Hemisphere species.

R.D.Seppelt, Hikobia 13: 172, fig. 4 (2000); R.D.Seppelt, The Moss Flora of Macquarie Island 263, fig. 102; 271, fig. 109 (2004).

Dalton, P.J., Seppelt, R.D. & Buchanan, A.M. (1991). An annotated checklist of Tasmanian mosses, in M.R.Banks et al. (eds), Aspects of Tasmanian Botany – A tribute to Winifred Curtis: 15–31. (Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart.)

Rodway, L. (1914). Botanic evidence in favour of land connection between Fuegia and Tasmania during present floristic epoch. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1913:32-24

Scott, G.A.M. & Stone, I.G. (1976).The Mosses of Southern Australia. (Academic Press: London).

Streimann, H. & Curnow, J. (1989). Catalogue of Mosses of Australia and its External Territories. Australian Flora and Fauna Series No. 10. (AGPS, Canberra.)

Warnstorf, C. (1911). Sphagnales – Sphagnaceae. Pflanzenreich 51: 1–546.

Willis, J.H. (1953). Systematic notes on Victorian mosses. 2. Victorian Naturalist 70: 55–57.

Seppelt, R.D.(2012). Australian Mosses Online 52. Sphagnaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 22 June 2012. http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/Mosses_online/52_Sphagnaceae.html

First published as: Seppelt, R.D. (2006). Sphagnaceae, in McCarthy , P.M. (ed.) Flora of Australia 51: 89–104. (Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra & CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.)