sphagnum

IPA/ˈsfæɡnəm/
IPA/ˈsfæɡnəm/

sphagnum — noun

  • sphagnumsingular
  • sphagnumsplural

1. a soft green moss that grows in bogs and marshes; it soaks up and holds a great

1.nounC2
Definition

a soft green moss that grows in bogs and marshes; it soaks up and holds a great deal of water, and as it slowly decays it becomes peat — gardeners use it to keep soil moist and to make compost

Example

Adwoa packed damp sphagnum around the orchid's roots before repotting it.

collocation: damp sphagnum

Haruki learned that sphagnum can hold twenty times its own weight in water.

hold + [number] times its weight in water

Common collocations
  • damp sphagnum
  • dried sphagnum
  • live sphagnum
  • sphagnum bog
  • grow in sphagnum
  • packed in sphagnum
Synonyms
  • peat moss

    the common everyday name for sphagnum; used especially in gardening contexts

  • bog moss

    an informal name that emphasises where it grows; less common than peat moss

Usage Note

Commonly sold dried in gardening shops; when water is added it swells and becomes soft. Not the same as peat, which is the dark, soil-like material that forms after sphagnum decays over centuries.

Common Mistakes

I spread peat on the flower bed to help it hold water.
I spread sphagnum moss on the flower bed to help it hold water.
Peat is the dark, decayed material that sphagnum eventually turns into; sphagnum is the living or dried moss itself.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Sphagnum and peat moss refer to the same plant — peat moss is the common name while sphagnum is the scientific one, and you will see both on gardening products. Peat, however, is a different substance: it is the dark, crumbly material that forms after sphagnum and other plants decay in bogs over hundreds or thousands of years. Peat is dug up and burned as fuel in some countries, or sold as a soil additive, but it does not have the live moss's ability to absorb and hold water. Moss is the broad category — sphagnum is just one of thousands of moss species. If you walk through a forest and see green fuzz on a rock, that is moss, but it is almost certainly not sphagnum; sphagnum needs very wet, acidic ground.

peat mosspeatmoss ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • sphagnum moss
  • sphagnum bog
  • sphagnum peat

Phrases

  • packed in sphagnum
  • grow in sphagnum

Prepositions

  • in sphagnum
  • with sphagnum
  • into sphagnum

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

Borrowed into English in the 18th century from modern scientific Latin Sphagnum, the genus name given by botanists. The Latin word was taken from Greek sphagnos, which referred to a type of moss or a spongy plant. The Greek root is related to the idea of something swollen or absorbent, fitting the plant's remarkable ability to soak up water.