''Corynactis annulata'', or the strawberry anemone, is a bright pink colonial

anthozoa Anthozoa is one of the three subphyla of Cnidaria, along with Medusozoa and Endocnidozoa. It includes Sessility (motility), sessile marine invertebrates and invertebrates of brackish water, such as sea anemones, Scleractinia, stony corals, soft c ...

n similar in body form to

sea anemone Sea anemones ( ) are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates constituting the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemone ...

s and

scleractinia Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mo ...

n stony corals. This species is a solitary animal of the order

Corallimorpharia Corallimorpharia is an order of marine cnidarians closely related to stony or reef building corals ( Scleractinia). They occur in both temperate and tropical climates, although they are mostly tropical. Temperate forms tend to be very robust, wi ...

.Branch, G.M., Branch, M.L, Griffiths, C.L. and Beckley, L.E. 2010. ''Two Oceans: a guide to the marine life of southern Africa''

Description

The strawberry anemone is a very distinctive small bright pink anemone having white knobs on the ends of its tentacle tips. It grows to a diameter of . Green and reddish colour morphs are also known.Jones, Georgina. ''A field guide to the marine animals of the Cape Peninsula.'' SURG, Cape Town, 2008.

Distribution

This species is found around the southern African coast from Port Nolloth to Mossel Bay, intertidally to . It is also known from the Inaccessible Archipelago in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

Ecology

It occurs in clusters and sheets on rocky reefs and wrecks. It feeds on small planktonic organisms.

References

Corallimorphidae Cnidarians of the Atlantic Ocean Marine fauna of Africa Animals described in 1867 {{hexacorallia-stub