Jewel Anemone

Photo: Bernard Picton · CC BY

Jewel anemones form dense carpets across the shadier faces of the Garvellachs' rock walls, their translucent bodies tipped with club-shaped tentacles in electric pink, purple, orange, and white. These colonial animals are not true anemones but corallimorpharians, reproducing asexually to create genetically identical clonal patches that can cover several square metres. The density of jewel anemone coverage on Scottish west coast walls is globally significant.