COMPARATIVE DESCRIPTION OF SPHAGNUM AUSTINII ANS S. PAPILLOSUM OF THE GENUS SPHAGNUM SPECIES OF KOLKHETI PLAIN

Abstract

      The genus Sphagnum is the edifier of living sphagnum peatlands spread on the plain of Kolkheti. One of the dome-forming species of living sphagnum peatlands of Kolkheti is Sphagnum austinii Sull., which is rare in Europe and has been assigned the category of Near Threatened (NT) by the IUCN Red List (https://www.iucnredlist.org/). In the peatlands of Kolkheti, the species - Sph. Papillosum Lindb., which in some cases is morphologically very similar to Sphagnum austinii Sull., and is almost impossible to distinguish in the field with a magnifying glass. We described and recorded the anatomical features of the species under the microscope (OMAX-DC5V).