#5018 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Green Boring Sponge
🇳🇱 Groene boorspons ·Cliona viridis
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Frédéric ANDRE · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Sylvain Le Bris · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Sylvain Le Bris · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Sylvain Le Bris · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Sylvain Le Bris · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © sandrinelecomte13 · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © Xavier Rufray · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. © eduardmarques · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © Jean-Paul Cassez · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. © Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0
what is it?
Cliona viridis , commonly called the green boring sponge , is a species of demosponge in the family Clionaidae. Its form varies according to the nature of the surface on which it grows. In limestone and other calcareous substrates it excavates channels and chambers while on other types of rock it encrusts the surface or forms massive structures. It is native to the eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea and the Indo-Pacific Ocean.
base stats
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.
- 1,197 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
fact sheet
- English
- Green Boring Sponge
- Nederlands
- Groene boorspons
- scientific name
- Cliona viridis
- class
- Demospongiae
- order
- Clionaida
- family
- Clionaidae
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 997
- sightings worldwide
- 1,197
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
relatives· Clionaidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 363860, Wikidata Q2979374, GBIF 5183653, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.