Moss Specimen

Date2007

Object numberHF.2012.49.44

DescriptionA large sample of dry Sphagnum fallax [Klinggr.] Klinggr. moss with long, tightly interlacing, waving branches. Stems are red-brown in colour with feather-like branches and tightly grouped leaves. The top of each branch has a tightly grouped arrangement of leaves, resembling a rosette. Several stems reach outward towards the bottom right corner. Left half of the sample is yellow-brown in colour, while the right half is yellow-green with streaks of light green.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Bryophyta
Class: Sphagnopsida
Order: Sphagnales
Family: Sphagnaceae
Genus: Sphagnum
Species: Sphagnum fallax

Narrative

Collected on October 24, 2007, by Rosemary Curley from the Townshend Woodlot, Souris Line Road, Kings County, PEI (46°25'53.22"N, 62°16'29.88'W. Datum: NAD83). Collected growing on an old growth sugar maple with coarse woody debris. Associated plants: beech, Canadian yew (taxus canadensis), striped maple (acer pensylvanicum).

Sphagnum fallax is an elegant, medium sized moss which grows in thick carpets. Stellate capitula (stem head) are convex with pairs of arched branches. Branch leaves are arranged in straight lines, recurved, and 1.2mm in length. Stem leaves are triangular shaped with a pinched apex, 0.8-1.2mm in length. Dioicous reproduction capsules occur occasionally, often in the summer months.

Sphagnum fallax is common in permanently wet, acidic habitats such as wet fields, bogs, by streams, in woods, ditches and swamps. In pools it often forms floating rafts. Geographically it is found throughout Boreo-temperate climates, mainly in oceanic and suboceanic regions and is scarce in continental interiors. It is found throughout North America, Central and South America, Europe as well as Asia. Within Canada it is common throughout Atlantic Canada, less so in Prince County, PEI, into Quebec and Ontario, western Canada.

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