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| soft corals text index | photo index |
| Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Alcyonaria/Octocorallia > Order Alcyonacea |
| Carnation
leathery soft coral Awaiting identification* Family Alcyoniidae updated Dec 11 Where seen? Resembling leathery carnations with polyps like little glass stars, this soft coral is sometimes seen on some of our shores. Among coral rubble and sandy areas near reefs. Features: The colony (10-15cm) is usually thick, disk-like with highly ruffled ridges. Sometimes covering large areas of 50cm or more.The common tissue may be purplish grey, beige, yellowish or blue. Polyps may be colourless or faintly coloured green, yellow. It has only one kind of polyp (autozooid) although there are very tiny spots among the autozooids giving the leathery common tissue has a rather 'crystalline' appearance. The transparent polyps are tiny (0.2cm), 8 short cylindrical tentacles with tiny branches, the body column hardly seen. The autozooids are only found on the upper side of the common tissue and tend to be clustered on the edges of the disk, with fewer in the middle of the disk. The autozooids emerge from small lumps or even long tubular segments of the common tissue. The autozooids can retract completely into the common tissue. Leathery soft corals that have these characteristics include Dampia sp. and Sinularia brasicca. |
 Tuas, Apr 05  Polyps only on upper side, and more abundant at the edges. |
 Tuas, Apr 08 |
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 Polyps appear on lumpr or tubular extensions. |
Carnation leathery soft corals on Singapore shores
 Tuas, Dec 03 |
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 Tiny spots give the common tissue a 'crystalline' appearance. |
 Labrador, Jul 05 |
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 Tiny transparent star-like polyps. |
 Tuas, Dec 03 |
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more photos of carnation leathery soft corals on Singapore shores
northern shores | southern shores
*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.
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References
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Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Museum and
Art Gallery of the Northern Territoriy. 264 pp|
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