#5020 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co

Aggregating Anemone

Anthopleura elegantissima

🪼 Jellyfish, starfish, worms & co 📍 outside Europe

7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

Anthopleura elegantissima , also known as the aggregating anemone or clonal anemone , is the most abundant species of sea anemone found on rocky, tide swept shores along the Pacific coast of North America. This cnidarian hosts endosymbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that contribute substantially to primary productivity in the intertidal zone. A. elegantissima has become a model organism for the study of temperate cnidarian-algal symbioses.

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 33,730iNaturalist observations

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
33,730 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Johann Friedrich von Brandt in 1835 (191 years ago).