Sphagnum sparsum Hampe, Vidensk. Meddel. Dansk. Naturhist. Foren. Kjøbenhavn, ser. 3, 2: 259. 1870.

Sphagnum apollinairei Par. & Warnst. ex Warnst., Hedwigia 47: 114. 1907.

Plants slender, in compact, pink or pink-tinged cushions; cortical cells in 3–4 layers, those of the epidermis mostly porose at the upper ends; wood cylinder pale, yellow to pinkish. Stem leaves 1.4–1.6 mm long, oblong-lingulate to triangular-ovate, concave-pointed; border not much broadened at base; hyaline cells usually short, mostly 1(–2)-divided, on the outer surface with membrane pleats, more or less rudimentary fibrils and sometimes a few scattered, round membrane gaps in the upper half or less (sometimes with long, narrow, fibrillose cells with numerous round to oblong membrane gaps), on the inner surface mostly resorbed. Branches in fascicles of 4 (2 spreading); cortical retort cells differentiated. Branch leaves erect when moist, slightly spreading at the tips when dry, not ranked, 1.1–1.5 mm long, broadly oblong-lanceolate, concave-acuminate, bordered by 2–3 rows of linear cells; hyaline cells decidedly convex, on the outer surface near the leaf apex with 3–8 small, elliptic, ringed commissural pores (noticeably grouped in 3's at adjacent cell angles), larger below, on the inner surface without pores in the upper median region or with a few small, round, ringed pseudopores and rarely a few large, round, unringed pores at ends and corners, toward the leaf margins with numerous large, round, thin-margined pores; green cells broadly triangular to trapezoidal, exposed exclusively or more broadly on the inner surface.