Crossword clues for sphagnum
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sphagnum \Sphag"num\, n. [NL., fr/ Gr. ??? a kind of moss.] (Bot.) A genus of mosses having white leaves slightly tinged with red or green and found growing in marshy places; bog moss; peat moss.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
genus of mosses, peat-moss, 1741, Modern Latin, from Latin sphagnos, a kind of lichen, from Greek sphagnos "a spiny shrub, a kind of moss," of unknown origin. Related: Sphagnous.
Wiktionary
n. Any of various widely distributed mosses, of the genus ''Sphagnum'', which slowly decompose to form peat.
WordNet
n. any of various pale or ashy mosses of the genus Sphagnum whose decomposed remains form peat [syn: sphagnum moss, peat moss, bog moss]
Wikipedia
Sphagnum is a genus of approximately 120 species of mosses, commonly known as peat 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 16–26 times as much water as their dry weight, depending on the species. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions. Hence, as sphagnum moss grows, it can slowly spread into drier conditions, forming larger mires, both raised bogs and blanket bogs. These peat accumulations then provide habitat for a wide array of peatland plants, including sedges and ericaceous shrubs, as well as orchids and carnivorous plants. Sphagnum and the peat formed from it do not decay readily because of the phenolic compounds embedded in the moss's cell walls. In addition, bogs, like all wetlands, develop anaerobic soil conditions, which produces slower anaerobic decay rather than aerobic microbial action. Peat moss can also acidify its surroundings by taking up cations, such as calcium and magnesium, and releasing hydrogen ions. Under the right conditions, peat can accumulate to a depth of many meters. Different species of Sphagnum have different tolerance limits for flooding and pH, so any one peatland may have a number of different Sphagnum species.
Individual peat moss plants consist of a main stem, with tightly arranged clusters of branch fascicles usually consisting of two or three spreading branches and two to four hanging branches. The top of the plant, or capitulum, has compact clusters of young branches. Along the stem are scattered leaves of various shapes, named stem leaves; the shape varies according to species. The leaves consist of two kinds of cells; small, green, living cells ( chlorophyllose cells), and large, clear, structural, dead cells ( hyaline cells). The latter have the large water-holding capacity.
Usage examples of "sphagnum".
Elizabeth felt the spongy give of sphagnum moss through the soft soles of the moccasins she had put on in such haste, along with a doeskin overdress and leggings which Many-Doves had offered.
But his worst adventure--he seemed shy in telling it--was when he was caught without snow-shoes in an early fall blizzard, and crossed unknowingly a bottomless half-frozen sphagnum swamp which heaved under his tread and made him vomit up his soul.
The environment, with its surface layer of sphagnum under which lie thick deposits of peat, is so conducive to birdlife that Loch Fleet and the Dornoch Firth account for most of the more than five thousand birds that winter in the county of Sutherland.
Within were trickling water, growths of feathery black moss, pale cycads, a settle padded with woven reed and sphagnum.
After girdling, the stem is sprayed or dusted with a fungicide and growth regulator, sur- rounded with one or two handfuls of unmilled sphagnum moss, and wrapped tightly with a small sheet of clear poly- ethylene film (4-6 mil).
The very hydraulic press which one hour was moulding shell bases, was in the next devoting its energy to compressing the healing cakes of Sphagnum Moss.
Although this particular use of the moss is generally looked upon as an innovation, we owe the introduction of Sphagnum Moss as a modern surgical dressing to Germany, where its value for this purpose was quite accidentally discovered in the early eighties.
This does not, however, appear likely to lead to any important industry, but absorptive material has been produced from white Sphagnum Moss and Wood Pulp.