Previous work in peatland hydrology has demonstrated differences in water retention, hydraulic conductivity, and bulk density between peat formed by different species of Sphagnum moss; however, no work to date has explored the variability Sphagnum hydrophysical properties and what that means for interpreting hydrological function based on species identity. Here we present water retention (-25 cm and �100 cm pressure), hydraulic conductivity (0 cm and �25 cm pressure), and bulk density of S. fuscum (n=36), S. rubellum (n = 30), and the S. magellanicum complex (n = 24) from 0�5 cm deep samples in natural peatlands. All measures were not significantly different between S. fuscum and S. rubellum across all samples, but the S. magellanicum complex was significantly different than both. When looking within sites there is no clear niche separation between species with considerable overlap in hydrological function. These results show that species identity does not always reflect hydrological function which supports using a plant functional traits approach to understand Sphagnum hydrology.