Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. Sphagnum moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most common components in peat, although many other plants can contribute. The biological features of sphagnum mosses act to create a habitat aiding peat formation, a phenomenon termed 'habitat manipulation'. Soils consisting primarily of peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding or stagnant water obstructs the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing the rate of decomposition. Peat properties such as organic matter content and saturated hydraulic conductivity can exhibit high spatial heterogeneity.
Sphagnum is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, also bog moss and quacker moss. Accumulations of Sphagnum can store water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells; plants may hold 16 to 26 times as much water as their dry weight, depending on the species. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions.
Pilosella officinarum, known as mouse-ear hawkweed, is a yellow-flowered species of flowering plant in the daisy family Compositae, native to Europe and northern Asia. It produces single, lemon-coloured inflorescences. Like most hawkweed species, it is highly variable and is a member of a species complex of several dozens of subspecies and hundreds of varieties and forms. It is an allelopathic plant.
Holcus lanatus is a perennial flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae. The specific epithet lanatus is Latin for 'woolly' which describes the plant's hairy texture. Common names include Yorkshire fog, tufted grass, and meadow soft grass. In North America, where it is an invasive species, names include velvet grass and common velvet grass.
Rumex acetosella, commonly known as red sorrel, sheep's sorrel, field sorrel and sour weed, is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Native to Eurasia and the British Isles, the plant and its subspecies are common perennial weeds. It has green arrowhead-shaped leaves and red-tinted deeply ridged stems, and it sprouts from an aggressive and spreading rhizome. The flowers emerge from a tall, upright stem. Female flowers are maroon in color.
Ranunculus glacialis, the glacier buttercup or glacier crowfoot, is a plant of the family Ranunculaceae. It is a 5-10(-20) cm high perennial herb. Often with a single relatively large flower, with 5 petals first white later pink or reddish. The underside of the 5 sepals are densely brown-hairy. The leaves are fleshy, shiny, and deeply loped, forming 3 leaflets. Ranunculus glacialis is reported to have a diploid chromosome number of 2n = 16.
Carex chordorrhiza, commonly called creeping sedge or string sedge, is a species of perennial plant in the family Cyperaceae with Holarctic distribution growing in acidic bogs.
Carex capitata is a species of sedge known by the common name capitate sedge. It has a circumboreal distribution including Norway, Russia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Growing in wet places in boreal forests and mountain meadows in alpine climates.
Carex lyngbyei is a species of sedge known by the common name Lyngbye's sedge. It is native to the west coast of North America from Alaska to California, where it "is the common sedge of the Pacific coastal salt marshes." It is also known from Greenland and Iceland. It prefers to grow in silty sediment rather than sand and in habitat with brackish water, such as salt marshes. This sedge produces stems 25 centimeters to well over one meter tall from a network of long rhizomes. The leaves have reddish brown sheaths which do not have spots. The inflorescence produces stiff, nodding spikes on peduncles. The fruit is coated in a leathery yellowish brown sac called a perigynium. This is a pioneer species, one of the first plants to colonize the mud of tidal flats in its range.
Sphagnum magellanicum, commonly called Magellanic bogmoss, Magellan's sphagnum, Magellan's peatmoss or midway peat moss, is a widespread species of moss found in wet boreal forest in the far south and southwest of South America and in northern North America and Eurasia.
Carex bigelowii is a species of sedge known by the common names Bigelow's sedge, Gwanmo sedge, and stiff sedge. It has an Arctic–alpine distribution in Eurasia and North America, and grows up to 50 centimetres (20 in) tall in a variety of habitats.
A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat. Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. Like coral reefs, peatlands are unusual landforms that derive mostly from biological rather than physical processes, and can take on characteristic shapes and surface patterning.
Polytrichum strictum, commonly known as bog haircap moss or strict haircap, is an evergreen and perennial species of moss native to Sphagnum bogs and other moist habitats in temperate climates. It has a circumboreal distribution, and is also found in South America and Antarctica.
The Magellanic moorland or Magellanic tundra is an ecoregion on the Patagonian archipelagos south of latitude 48° S. It is characterized by high rainfall with a vegetation of scrubs, bogs and patches of forest in more protected areas. Cushion plants, grass-like plants and bryophytes are common.
Carex capillaris, the hair-like sedge, is a species of sedge found in North America and northern Eurasia including Greenland.
Carex bicolor, the bicoloured sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America, Northern Europe and Northern Asia. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the plant's conservation status as being of least concern because it has a widespread distribution and faces no particular threats.
Carex atrata, called black alpine sedge, is a widespread species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to Greenland, Iceland, and most of Europe, plus scattered locations across temperate Asia, including Anatolia, Siberia and the Himalaya, as far as Taiwan and Japan. Its chromosome number is 2n=52, with some variants reported, e.g. n2=54 for Greenland material.
Carex lachenalii, called the twotipped sedge and hare's foot sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to temperate and subarctic North America, Greenland, Iceland, Europe, and Asia, and the South Island of New Zealand. Its diploid chromosome number is 2n=64, with some uncertainty.
Carex scirpoidea is a species of sedge belonging to the family Cyperaceae. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants.
Carex michauxiana, also known as Michaux's sedge, carex de Michaux or yellowish sedge in Canada, is a tussock-forming species of perennial sedge in the family Cyperaceae. It is native to eastern parts of North America and parts of Asia.
