Longevous sexual propagules are of great importance for persistence of plant populations. In natural environment, Sphagnum spores have potential to germinate and regenerate. They may play an important role in maintaining population persistence of Sphagnum when great natural or man-made disturbance happens. However, quite few studies about spore longevity of peatland bryophytes have been reported so far. In Hani Peatland of the Changbai Mountains, we took peat cores in hollow habitats, determined peat humification degree and ignition loss and extracted the spores of Sphagnum from the peat cores layer by layer. We cultivated the spores, to investigate the effect of burial time on spore germination rate. In the burial environment of hollows for Sphagnum spores, with the increase of depth namely burial time, peat humification degree and ignition loss generally showed a trend of increase and decrease, respectively. The germination rate of Sphagnum spores decreases linearly, but it can still reach 40% after the spores were buried for more than 150 years. Our study further proves that there are long-term persistent spore banks in peatlands. If we define the maximum longevity of spores as the time that when germination rate of spores is 1% in the burial environment, the maximum longevity for Sphagnum spores can be older than 400 years. The longevity mechanism of Sphagnum spores may be related with the special burial environment of peatlands. It is necessary to carry out experiments to test effects of environment factors such as hydrology, water chemistry and even microbiological diversity on spore viability in the future.