Sphagnum teres(Schimp.) Ångstr. ex C.Hartm.

sphagnum

WFO wfo-0001190326 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Sphagnum teres, photographed by Randal
fig. a Randal, CC0 1.0 / 2021-11-03 / obs. 172674719
Sphagnum teres, photographed by Randal
fig. b Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 167312594
Sphagnum teres, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. c Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152401395
Sphagnum teres, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. d Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 123129200
Sphagnum teres, photographed by Randal
fig. e Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 111981966
Sphagnum teres, photographed by Andrew Melton
fig. f Andrew Melton, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 103759952
Sphagnum teres, photographed by Andrew Melton
fig. g Andrew Melton, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 53886282
Sphagnum teres, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. h Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 161254480

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Where it actually grows measured, from 203 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -26.2 °C -7.3 °C 0.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.0 °C 21.6 °C 26.4 °C
Annual rainfall 563 mm 939 mm 2,372 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 64 mm 151 mm 339 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 203 research-grade observations of Sphagnum teres that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 58 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Sphagnum latifolium var. tenellum Spreng.
  • Sphagnum ochraceum Głow.
  • Sphagnum squarrosulum (Schimp.) Lesq.
  • Sphagnum squarrosulum var. laxum Schlieph.
  • Sphagnum squarrosum subsp. teres (Schimp.) Kavina
  • Sphagnum squarrosum var. bielewskii Hérib.
  • Sphagnum squarrosum var. limbatum Cardot
  • Sphagnum squarrosum var. squarrosulum Schimp.
  • Sphagnum squarrosum var. strictum Hérib.
  • Sphagnum squarrosum var. subteres Lindb.
  • Sphagnum squarrosum var. tenellum Pers.
  • Sphagnum squarrosum var. teres Schimp.
  • Sphagnum tenellum Pers. ex Nees & Hornsch.
  • Sphagnum teres f. elegans (Röll) Warnst.
  • Sphagnum teres f. flotowii (Warnst.) Warnst.
  • Sphagnum teres f. geheebii (Röll) Warnst.
  • Sphagnum teres f. gracile Warnst.
  • Sphagnum teres f. gracile Warnst.
  • Sphagnum teres f. laxum (Schlieph.) Warnst.
  • Sphagnum teres f. limbatum (Cardot) Cardot
  • Sphagnum teres f. ovatum (Warnst.) Warnst.
  • Sphagnum teres f. patulum Röll
  • Sphagnum teres f. robustum (Röll) Warnst.
  • Sphagnum teres f. squarrosulum (Schimp.) C.E.O.Jensen

and 34 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite. It has no native range either: Kew's checklist does not cover this taxon.