Camosun Blog

When one works with Sphagnum moss, its good to know how it grows and reproduces. Mosses have different life cycles than plants or animals, that most people are completely unaware of. They have an "alternation of generations" which means the haploid (N) and diploid (2N) stages of life are multicellular and long lived. The 'ploidy' relates to how many sets of chromosomes you have. If you are 2N, you have one set of chromosomes from your mother, and one set of chromosomes from your father. If you are N, you only contain one set of chromosomes, either from your mother or from your father. Lets start the life cycle with a spore.

As part of a bryology course at the University of British Columbia, I looked at some of the sphagnum mosses in Camosun Bog. I'd like to show you one of the mosses, Sphagnum palustre, magnified up close. This is what is looks like fresh.
If I were to pull out one individual and dry it, this is what it would look like:
Its hard to see, but there are two kind of "leaves" on this moss, ones that go down the stem and ones that come off on horizontal branches.
 There are two types of cells. One type is green and undergoes photosynthesis. The other type is clear and allows the plant to take up water as a storage reservoir.

This is what a divergent leaf looks like under the microscope. In this case, there are holes where water can enter the cell.
 Now if we did a cross-section of the leaf, what would it look like?
 The leaf is only one cell thick! Here you can really see how photosynthetic cells are squeezed between transparent cells. Next is a cross-section of the stem.
The big clear cells are designed to store water. The closely packed cells in the middle are designed to move water from the bottom of the plant, to the top. There are no photosynthetic cells.  Some sphagnums in the bog can be identified by the eye, like the bright red S. capillifolium, while others require comparing structures under the microscope, like I've just shown. Sphagnum is very pretty both to the naked eye, as well as under a microscope.

Sphagnum turns yellow during the summer drought but after a rain, the bog becomes green quickly

Ever wonder where Laurence gets those plugs of sphagnum moss  for the restoration process? it's impossible to buy them in any garden store.  All the sphagnum in the restored bog comes from the nearby forest, but the forest is on former bog.

When the city installed drains, the water table was lowered and the bog was almost swallowed up by hemlock forest.

Lichenomphalina umbellifera

All photos copyright Gerry Mignault,  CBRG

The keystone species in Camosun bog is Sphagnum moss, sometimes called peat moss.  Without Sphagnum , the bog would not exist. Sphagnum maintains the wet and acidic conditions favoured by bog plants.  It has the incredible ability to absorb water like a super sponge and it pumps hydrogen ions into its surroundings, thus creating a very acidic environment. 


Sphagnum moss is a Bryophyte, one of the earliest plants to colonize land in evolutionary history. It doesn't have many of the adaptations shared by more recent land plants:   Lacks a cuticle (no shiny waxy protective covering - lip balm for plants!) Has no vascular system, the xylem and phloem (the "arteries and veins" of later land plants - maple syrup is tree "blood" drizzled on our pancakes!).


Sphagnum shares many characteristics with its close relatives, the aquatic plants.  like seaweed, it has swimming sperm. Thus sphagnum requires constant water for sexual reproduction.  Observe Gerry's  photos of Camosun bog's range of Sphagnum moss varieties.

This is a bamboo stick, about 1.6 metres, buried in the peat.  Let's pull it out.  (look closely at the moss near the stick.  Can you spot the sundews?)