Intertidal Invertebrates of the Monterey Bay Area, California

Compiled & photographed by Gary McDonald, Long Marine Laboratory, University of California, Santa Cruz

Description: Tentacles variable in color, typically greenish or greyish, often with pink, lavender or bluish tips. The column with vertical rows of adhesive tubercles (verrucae) which are used to attach pebbles, shell fragments etc., which may help reduce desiccation during exposure at low tide. May be distinguished from Anthopleura xanthogrammica which has smaller tubercles on column that are not arranged in obvious vertical rows, and which lacks obvious radiating lines on oral disk.May be distinguished from Anthopleura sola which is larger and solitary in habit.

Size: Column less than 5cm in diameter; tentacle crown up to 8cm in diameter.

Notes: These anemones usually occur in dense aggregations of cloned individuals. The anemones produce the green color in response to symbiotic green algae or dinoflagellates.