Sphagnum cyclophyllum Sullivant in A. Gray is considered a rare peat moss known from the southeastern United States and disjunct in Nova Scotia. This report fills a gap in the known distribution of the species documenting it from six locations on the Coastal Plain of Delaware and Maryland.
Sphagnum cyclophyllum Sullivant in A. Gray (Sphagnaceae) is considered to be a rare peat moss (NatureServe 2012), found on wet substrates, in depressions, grassy savannas, flat-woods, swamps, pocosins, pine barrens, ditches and roadsides (McQueen & Andrus 2007; Anderson et al. 2009). In the U.S., S. cyclophyllum is primarily distributed on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, from New Jersey south to Florida, and west to east Texas (McQueen & Andrus 2007; Anderson et al. 2009).
The species is disjunct in Nova Scotia and is also found in South America (McQueen & Andrus 2007). This report discusses the discovery of S. cyclophyllum in Delaware and Maryland (Fig. 1), announces new additions to the bryofloras of Delaware (McAvoy, unpublished data 2012) and Maryland (Dirago 2009), and fills a gap in the distribution of this species along the Atlantic Coastal Plain. An earlier report of S. cyclophyllum from Delaware and Maryland was inaccurate (Anderson et al. 2009; J. Shaw pers. comm.).
Read more, in the full article at the Delaware government website.
Knapp, W.M. & W.A. McAvoy. 2012. Sphagnum cyclophyllum New to Delaware and Maryland. Evansia 29(4): 101-103.
Wesley Knapp 
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