A Deviant Expression of Sphagnum tenerum from the Virginia Tidewater and the Dominican Republic

Sphagnum tenerum var. virginicum, described from coastal Virginia and the Domin- ican Republic, differs from var. tenerum in having branches infascicles of 4-5 and pores consistently in the epidermal cells of stems. Sphagnum tenerum Sull. & Lesq. is common and wide-ranging along the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the eastern United States. It occurs less commonly in the uplands of North Carolina and Tennessee, and perhaps elsewhere inland, and as a rare disjunct in northern South America. The original collection was made by Leo Lesquereux in northern Alabama and issued in 1857 as no. 11 in the first edition of Sul- livant and Lesquereux's Musci Boreali-Americani. The locality and habitat data are skimpy: "Ad ri- vulorum per montes Raccoon Alabamae." The Raccoon Mountains were designated as the Sand and Raccoon Mountains on older maps but now merely as the Sand Mountains. They comprise a much dissected plateau that is a spur of the greater Cumberland Plateau. The dissections create a series of more or less flat-topped "mountains," with an average elevation of about 1,500 ft. above sea level, rising from a base of 300-400 ft. The soil layer is thin, and there is considerable exposure of sand- stone. The summers are hot and dry, but in late fall to spring there are seasonal rivulets. The Sand Mountains extend southwesterly from Dade Coun- ty, Georgia, through Dekalb and Marshall counties, Alabama, ending near Albertsville. The junior au- thor has collected in the area on several occasions and found Sphagnum tenerum to be rather plentiful in both Dekalb and Marshall counties. Lesquereux's route is uncertain, but he could have collected S. tenerum in either county. The species occurs on nearly all peaks in the area, generally on thin soil seasonally wet from seepage at margins of vegeta- tion mats forming islands on exposed sandstone and also, as Lesquereux noted, along rivulets. In Dekalb Co. S. tenerum occupies the edges of boggy habitats that support Sarracenia, Drosera, and other plants