The starburst anemone is rarely found above sea level. Tattered acrorhagi of Starburst Anemone (above) (GA image) Starburst Anemone war (just beginning) above left, Starburst anemone war after a few hours (tattered acrorhagi) above right (GA images) Eventually one anemone moves away from the tentacle-reach of its neighbor to stop the fight. The white is a concentration of stinging cells and when touched, to an enemy, it will slough off - to keep on stinging the enemy again and again. As they fight (touching each other with their acrorhagi) the white areas of the acrorhagi become tattered. When tidepooling it is the starburst anemone that may often be caught in the middle of a fight, with its white, blunt acrorhagi inflated. Thus they maintain even spacing in the Low Tide Zone. If two starburst anemones touch their feeding tentacles they inflate their acrorhagi (generally deflated and hidden between the feeding tentacles and the side of the anemone) and fight until one of them moves.Īcrorhagi fully inflated on Starburst Anemone (above) (GA image) It fights with its neighbors, using these acrorhagi, to remain a little more than tentacle distance apart. Starburst Anemone with a few acrorhagi inflated on left (above) (GA image) The starburst anemone also has fighting tentacles, called acrorhagi, just like the aggregating anemone. Starburst Anemone regurgitating (turning inside out to remove undigested material in its stomach). Open Starburst Anemone showing feeding tentacles (above left), Closed Starburst Anemone (above right) (GA images) Solitary Starburst Anemone (above) showing radiating lines on the oral disk. There is another solitary sea anemone that looks similar, called the giant green anemone ( Anthopleura xanthogrammica) that lives intertidally in the cooler waters of Central and Northern California but it lacks the radiating lines on the oral disk and is generally not found in Santa Barbara tidepools. Up until then it was known as a form of aggregating anemone that lived below sea level in Southern California and did not clone, remaining solitary. Closely related to the aggregating anemone, this species was given its own name only recently. It is fun to look through the strands of surfgrass for the 'treasures' hiding in the low tide pools.īefore we get to the 'treasures', you should be introduced to the starburst (or sunburst) anemone, Anthopleura sola. Oxygen bubbles produced by surfgrass on a sunny day at low tide (above) (GA image) Normally this is washed away by the ocean currents, but at a minus tide, surfgrass in still tidepools on sunny days is covered with bubbles of pure oxygen. As a photosynthetic plant it creates oxygen as a waste product of photosynthesis. Surfgrass bed exposed at a minus tide (above) (GA image)ĭuring minus tides the surfgrass is left dry for a short time, but is a wonderful visual cue to where sea level is located. Not able to withstand much desiccation, this plant grows much like garden grass, sending out lateral runners along the surface and establishing new plants, creating masses of vibrant green at sea level. Looking seaward at a minus tide with surfgrass exposed (above) (GA image) It is on almost every Santa Barbara shoreline that has rocks and waves at sea level. One of the few flowering plants in the ocean is surfgrass, Phyllospadix torreyi. Several other sea star species are commonly found in the Low Tide Zone like the bat star, leather star and sunflower star.ĭevereux tidepools at a minus tide (above) (GA image) It is also a mussel predator, but cannot withstand the desiccation of the Mid Tide Zone as well as the ochre sea star. Ochre Sea Star color variations (above) (GA image)Ī closely related species, the giant sea star, Pisaster giganteus, can also be found in the lower pools and comes in shades of blue and purple. The ochre sea stars, found in rich shades of orange, brown and rose, venture through the Mid Tide Zone, clearing shellfish and thus leaving room for the aggregating anemone clones.
Sea stars prefer the lower reaches of the rocky shore and are most common below sea level in the Low Tide Zone. The Low Tide Zone (sometimes called Zone 4)