Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Sphagnum

Sphagnum capillifolium

Also called Red bog-moss, Small red peat moss, Northern Peatmoss

Sphagnum
Photo: Fungus Guy, CC BY-SA 3.0

Red bog-moss (Sphagnum capillifolium) is a peat moss that forms tight, carpet-like mounds in wet, boggy habitats. Keep it wet and cool, as it grows in acidic bogs and is rarely grown as a plant for the home.

Family
Sphagnaceae (Sphagn family)
Light
Part shade
Water
Keep constantly moist, as it naturally grows in saturated bog conditions.
Soil
Acidic, peaty, waterlogged substrate such as sphagnum peat.
Temperature
Cool to mild conditions; tolerates cold winters in its native range.
How easy
Hard
Safety
Not known to be toxic

About

Sphagnum capillifolium, the red bogmoss, northern peat moss, acute-leaved bog-moss, or small red peat moss, is a species of peat moss native to Canada, the northern United States, Greenland, and Europe. Small red peat moss can be distinguished by its sweeping, outward-curving branches that resemble tresses. Sphagnum moss can hold large amounts of water within its cells, up to 20 times its own weight. This capability is due to its dead, empty cells called hyaline cells that fill up with water. This allows the moss to survive in wet, boggy habitats around rivers and lakes.

Other Sphagnum plants

Sphagnum imbricatum · Sphagnum · Sphagnum · Bog Moss

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sphagnum capillifolium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…