What is Sphagnum? What is Peat?

The mosses are very small flowerless plants with leafy stems and root like parts forming velvety mounds or making growth similar to minute ferns or tiny trees. The sphagnum mosses are larger than the true mosses. They often grow a foot or more in height and are of a pale green color. There are over 300 species.

The sphagnum mosses grow on swampy ground in many parts of the North Temperate Zone. New shoots break off to form new plants. The underground parts may grow several yards long. They extend deep into the peat bogs which are formed as the roots and stems of the mosses die and decay. This has been going on since mosses first commenced to grow and to die and to decay… this formation of peat bogs.

Unless you can provide ideal conditions, very similar to their native homes, it is difficult to keep sphagnum mosses growing when gathered. The fresh green tips are sometimes used in greenhouses to surface pots of orchids or other plants.

The sponge-like character of the mosses enables them to hold quantities of water and air. Nurseries find it ideal material to use in hanging plants. The dried sphagnum may be shredded by rubbing it through a wire screen. This makes a fine planting medium to use when planting seeds in flats as it is very sterile and one seldom has any damping-off problems. In such a medium, too, the seedlings can easily be transplanted without injuring the root systems. The shredded sphagnum can be used to root cuttings, or to grow lilies from scales and similar projects.

As the mosses decay more and more, they become a soft brown, spongy, semi-granulated soil. In this form it is known as peat moss. Peat bogs may be 5 or 6 feet deep. Some have been reported to be 40 feet deep. To make such a bog has taken untold centuries of time.

All peat is not peat moss… that is, it is not all made from sphagnum or other mosses. Some of it is made from swamp grasses or other kinds of plants growing in swamps. Like the mosses, the plants die and decay, and new growth takes their places, in turn to die and decay, and in uncounted years of time a peat bog is built up.

Peat burns with a hot, smokeless flame. There was a time when it was dug and dried to use for fuel by the peasantry in some countries. Perhaps it is still used today in isolated places where there is a dearth of fuel.

Peat and peat moss can be used in much the same way as shredded sphagnum. The horticultural grade is used in greenhouses and by gardeners because of its moisture holding qualities. Used as a soil conditioner, it adds organic matter to light soils, and lightens heavy soils. Potting soil mixtures often call for the addition of peat. Mixed with sand it makes a fine planting medium for flats, but is not sterile as sphagnum. It is used as mulch in the garden and flower borders.

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