Favoritos de radbackedsalamander

Within a calcium rich wetland but on an old farm roadbed, now fully vegetated, so slightly drier than the surrounding area. It looks like the farm road was used perhaps 30 years ago for haying the area. This is a known population and a joint survey with @julie_richburg1, the two of us alternating in spotting the next plants as we walked through the tall grasses and forbes. We found at least 15 small occurrences. It was last surveyed by @cbuelow45 11 years ago. Hydrology has changed since then I suspect and we had to wade through a shrub swamp with water well over the knees to get back in there!

Growing on moist ground next to a trail through a shrubby wetland.
Although the leaves of the dry capitula are only somewhat recurved, Sphagnum fallax appears to me to be the best fit.
Photos 2-4 show the moss dry. All leaf photos before the stem cross section are of stem leaves and are intended to show pallor in the apical ends of the hyaline cells (comments about this character would be very welcome) and fibrils absent from most leaves but present in some as far down as halfway to the base.
The photos after the stem cross section show branch leaves. The last and penultimate show concave surfaces. The antepenultimate shows a convex surface.

Incorrectly called Salix humilus triste in iNaturalist. Referring to the circular blue-gray clone of low willows in the photo with @gpalermo providing scale. This is the native habitat for this species, a pure sandplain grassland / heathland. We need to achieve a taxon swap to correct the species, but that takes a ton of time and is done by volunteer curators. @radbackedsalamander

A known population that appears to be in decline. There were no fruits on the two genets found. Note that the abaxial pubescence would clearly put this into variety mollis which has not been noted this far north. I also note that the maps in iNaturalist for the occurrence of this species are entirely worthless because people don't use rulers, and leaf size is a key difference between this species and the much more common Ilex verticillata.

A veritable jungle here. Lots of vines - mostly grape, also multiflora rose, virginia creeper, virgin's bower. A rather exotic feel was completed by the apple, sumac, dogwood, and autumn olive trees with a goldenrod and fern ground layer.

I walked around the entire pond and only this tiny area (~5 sqft) had this species. But in this small area it was quite common.

Habitat was an acidic pond edge. Associated with Polytrichum sp, Juncus spp, and Hypericum boreale.