Daisy Anemone
Cereus pedunculatus
Atlantic Beadlet Anemone
Actinia equina
About
The beadlet anemone is one of the toughest animals on the shore, clinging to rock in the splash zone through baking sun and pounding waves alike.
- Depth
- up to 1600 m
How to tell it apart
It looks much like the strawberry anemone. But that species has a mottled pattern and is usually bigger. The beadlet anemone is one plain colour and tends to be smaller.
Appearance
Underwater it opens into a ring of many short arms, called tentacles. Out of water it pulls in tight and looks like a soft blob of jelly, coloured red, brown, green, or orange. Just below the tentacles sits a ring of bright blue beads, called acrorhagi. It uses these as weapons when it fights other anemones for space.
Habitat
It lives on rocky shores at the waterline and in the intertidal zone, the strip covered and uncovered by the tide. This includes sheltered spots like the inside of harbour walls. It stays from the surface down to a few metres deep. It is found on rocky coasts across Northern and Western Europe, the Mediterranean, and parts of Africa, Asia, and Australia.
Did you know?
Unlike most sea anemones, which release eggs and sperm into open water, the beadlet anemone keeps its young inside its body and gives birth to fully formed baby anemones.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
