Sphagnum attenuatum Dix., J. Bot. 79: 57. 1941. Sphagnum beccarii Hampe, Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital. 4: 278. 1872. Sphagnum fleischeri Warnst., Hedwigia 57: 77. 1915. Sphagnum griffithianum Warnst., Hedwigia 30: 151. 1891. Sphagnum holttumii A. Johnson, Gard. Bull. Singapore 17: 320. 1959. Sphagnum japonicum Warnst. var. philippinense Warnst., Sphagn. Univ. 520. 1911. Sphagnum pauciporosum Warnst., Hedwigia 39: 109. 1900. Sphagnum roseotinctum A. Johnson, Gard. Bull. Singapore 17: 320. 1959.

Plants moderately robust, soft, pale green or yellowish brown, tinged with purple, in dense tufts. Stem cortex in 2–4 layers, hyaline cells thin-walled, sparsely fibrillose and porose; central cylinder reddish brown. Stem leaves 0.7–1.0 mm × 0.5–0.6 mm, short and small, flat, short ligulate, rounded and dentate at the apex; hyaline cells broadly rhomboidal, often divided, without fibrils and pores, or rarely fibrillose and porose in the upper cells. Branches in fascicles of 3–5, with 2–3 spreading. Branch leaves 1.6–2.0 mm × 1.2–1.4 mm, broadly ovate, strongly concave, margins involute in the upper half, cucullate-concave and dorsally roughened at the apex; hyaline cells rhomboidal, with large, rounded, unringed pores on the ventral surface, more pores in the upper cells, with few elliptic, ringed pores at the opposite ends on the dorsal surface; green cells in cross section narrowly elliptic, centrally located, slightly and equally exposed on both surfaces. Dioicous. Sporophytes not seen.

Type. Brazil: Beyrich s.n.

Chinese specimens examined: JILIN: Jing-yu Co., S.-E. Liu 1118 (IFSBH, KUN, MO). NEI MONGOL: Wufeng Shan (Mt.), H.-F. Xie 27 (KUN), 46 (KUN, MO).

Habitat: in bogs, on wet ground under forests; also submerged in water on grasslands; Distribution: China, Himalayas, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Europe, North, Central, and South America, South Africa, and Madagascar.

This species is similar to Sphagnum magellanicum, but it differs in having smaller and flat stem leaves (twice as small as the branch leaves) and in having the hyaline cells of stem leaves with obscure pores.

Illustrations: C. Gao (ed.) 1994 (Pl. 2, figs. 11–15, as Sphagnum beccarii).