Sphagnum is a huge group of plants and I've seen photos of many types. They can grow as slow as 1 mm a year and as fast a 6cm a year. A microscope is required for spiecies ID, but on the macro level they can look quite different from one another. Currently I have two types.
Type 1, "fluffy". I call this type fluffy because it has much finer featherlike leaves then what most photos of Sphagnum show. It grows about 3cm per year and spoors every month or so. Only about 1cm at a time is alive and is slightly yellower then grass green. It is also somewhat pale and the dieing parts turn to a rusty brown as they form new lightish colored peat. This was an ornimental Sphagnum strand placed next to my origenal flytrap (to survive) by "Little Pot of Horrors".
Type 2, "Standard". this poped up in my first bag of peat moss. I had planted fluffy in it, but I have recently noticed that this thicker more traditional type has started growing among it, in fact, their is actually more of it then the fluffy in that culture. It is grass green.
Type 3, "bright". This is a bright spring green that nearly glows with it's intense color. This appeared in a dark peat pellot and is not old enough yet to discribe further other then the color difference.
So, I am curious, what sort of Sphagnum do you have? It can come in a rainbow of colors, shapes sizes... Perhaps we can begin a little mini data collection of the types we find growing in out plants, and some day set up a traid system to help increase our collections of this secondary helper plant
-Darcie
Type 1, "fluffy". I call this type fluffy because it has much finer featherlike leaves then what most photos of Sphagnum show. It grows about 3cm per year and spoors every month or so. Only about 1cm at a time is alive and is slightly yellower then grass green. It is also somewhat pale and the dieing parts turn to a rusty brown as they form new lightish colored peat. This was an ornimental Sphagnum strand placed next to my origenal flytrap (to survive) by "Little Pot of Horrors".
Type 2, "Standard". this poped up in my first bag of peat moss. I had planted fluffy in it, but I have recently noticed that this thicker more traditional type has started growing among it, in fact, their is actually more of it then the fluffy in that culture. It is grass green.
Type 3, "bright". This is a bright spring green that nearly glows with it's intense color. This appeared in a dark peat pellot and is not old enough yet to discribe further other then the color difference.
So, I am curious, what sort of Sphagnum do you have? It can come in a rainbow of colors, shapes sizes... Perhaps we can begin a little mini data collection of the types we find growing in out plants, and some day set up a traid system to help increase our collections of this secondary helper plant
-Darcie
