Sphagnum mosses – The Stars of European Mires

This book describes the 60 Stars of European Sphagnum mosses for both identification in field conditions and for microscopic work in the laboratory. The main emphasis is on the illustrations, mainly photographs, showing both macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the species. Distribution of each species in Europe is given as well as the latest changes in taxonomy. This book is a collaboration among museum based botanists, field ecologists and peatland scientists and teachers. This new magnificent book will help both field ecologists and paleo-ecologists/geologists in their demanding work of Sphagnum identification, and — also hopefully — reveal the beauty of the peatlands even in the smaller forms.

Sphagnum mosses – The Stars of European Mires supersedes the planned publication of a third edition of The Intricate Beauty of Sphagnum Mosses: A Finnish Guide to Identification. It contains around 20 more species than were described in the second edition of that book. More than that, however, the descriptions for all species are new as well as the general introductory texts, all the photos have been changed or improved, new taxonomy has been used, and distributions of all the species are given, so this book is a complete revamp of the original concept.