Sphagnum lankesteri Crum, Cryptogamie, Bryol. Lichénol. 5: 293. 1984.

Slender plants in soft, pale yellowish tufts; cortical cells differentiated in 2–3 layers. Stem leaves 1.8–2 mm long, oblong or oblong-ovate, concave-acute, narrowly bordered throughout; hyaline cells fibrillose throughout, not divided, on the outer surface with unringed apical window pores and a few small, somewhat ringed pores scattered along the commissures, on the inner surface with round, thin-margined pores along the commissures (5–11 in the upper median region); green cells broadly exposed on both surfaces but more so on the outer. Branches in fascicles of 4 (2 spreading), noticeably tapered, the young pendent branches in the capitulum not seeming paired; cortical retort cells differentiated. Branch leaves somewhat flattened and wavy-margined with spreading to recurved tips when dry, 2–2.2 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, long-acuminate, entire, bordered by 2–3 rows of linear cells; hyaline cells bulging on the inner surface, plane or slightly convex on the outer, with somewhat enlarged, round, thin-margined, apical window pores and a few small, rounded-elliptic, more or less ringed pores at corners or along commissures, on the inner surface with numerous round, thin-margined pores along the commissures (8–13 in the upper median region); green cells as seen in section triangular to slightly trapezoidal, broadly exposed on the outer surface, reaching the inner surface and sometimes narrowly exposed.