Sphagnum ones ("Rigida" and "Squarrosa") has been clarified using molecular phylogenetics. All but two species normally identified as "Sphagnum" reside in one clade; two other species have recently been separated into new families within the Sphagnales reflecting an ancestral relationship with the Tasmanian endemic "Ambuchanania" and long phylogenetic distance to the rest of "Sphagnum". Within main clade of "Sphagnum", phylogenetic distance is relatively short, and molecular dating methods suggest nearly all current "Sphagnum" species are descended from a radiation that occurred just 14 million years ago. "Sphagnum" mosses occur mainly in the Northern Hemisphere in peat bogs, conifer forests, and moist
Abbotts Moss Nature Reserve quaking bog occurs when plants such as "Sphagnum" mosses and cotton grass "Eriophorum" sp. colonise the surface of a waterbody and form a floating mat of vegetation. Locally uncommon plants growing here include common cottongrass "Eriophorum angustifolium", cranberry "Vaccinium oxycoccos", round-leaved sundew "Drosera rotundifolia", crowberry "Empetrum nigrum", hare’s-tail cottongrass "Eriophorum vaginatum", bog rosemary "Andromeda polifolia", white beak-sedge "Rhynchospora alba" and the carnivorous lesser bladderwort "Utricularia minor". Dragonflies include the nationally rare white-faced darter "Leucorrhinia dubia" and the locally uncommon downy emerald "Cordulia aenea" and black darter "Sympetrum danae". Abbotts Moss is one of only two sites in Cheshire where adders