In addition to the marine residents that like to move around a lot we have some marine neighbours that are sedentary in nature. They can move if they want but prefer to stay in one place, you could call it home. The anemones fall firmly into this category and to me these beautiful marine creatures remind me of flowers. It may be a combination of the tentacles when open and the vivid colours resembling petals, or the way they can carpet areas like flowers in meadow. This article will introduce you to the aptly named, Dahlia Anemone - Urticina Felina.
Anemones are part of the Cnidaria family which includes jellyfish, all species have stinging cells, and the Dahlia species are powerful predators, using their tentacles to sting and paralyse their prey. They may spend much of their life in one place but beware any unfortunate, crab, worm, mollusc, prawns, or fish that stray too close. At their largest they can digest a sizable fish. Once stunned the meal is moved toward the mouth and feeding can begin. The sting is strong enough to cause harm to some humans so remember, as with all marine life, look but do not touch.
Growing to a be the size of a dinner plate around (20cms maximum) they are much easier to spot when open rather than closed. They like to attach to rocks and boulders but at Selsey I have seen them near to the seabed in the subtidal not far from shore. When looking down on them you can see their mouth in the centre, which is often in a contrasting colour to the surrounding short, wide tentacles, of which, they can have about 160 arranged in groups of ten. There is a clear banding on each tentacle that gives the appearance of a ring to the eye. The Dahlia Anemone comes in an amazing range of colours and at Selsey I have seen pink, yellow and red versions and even a vivid lilac that I managed to capture on a piece of wobbly film as I moved overhead in the currents that they like.
Anemones have columns and, in some cases, only observing the details of the column will help you tell similar species apart. The Dahlia has a short squat column, so when open, they appear to be lying flat on the bottom and the column is hidden. When closed they can be hard to see as the Dahlia column is covered in nodes that look like warts, and is camouflaged by bits of shell and small pebbles that stick to the column, helping it blend in.
There is much we do not yet know about these striking and beautiful residents, like how long can they live? There are examples in controlled environments still going strong after 50 years…. a bit longer than the garden variety of dahlia will stay in bloom
Comentarios