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| soft corals text index | photo index |
| Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Alcyonaria/Octocorallia > Order Alcyonacea > Family Alcyoniidae |
| Pinwheel
leathery coral Lobophytum sp.* Family Alcyoniidae updated Dec 11 Where seen? This large disc-shaped leathery coral that resembles a pinwheel is commonly seen on our Southern shores. On coral rubble. Features: Colony 30-50cm or larger. The circular colony usually looks like a mushroom; with a flat, broad disk attached to a hard surface by a very short, very broad central base. The base is often hidden by the circular disk. On the upper surface, ridges radiate from the centre of the disk. The ridges may have large flaps so that the ridge looks like half of a lobed leaf. These ridges stick out of the disk and are not folds of the disk itself. When out of water, the ridges or 'leafy' parts are collapsed so that the entire colony sometimes looks like a pinwheel. The leathery common tissue may be pink, orange, greenish, maroon or brown. The colony has both autozooids and siphonozooids. Autozooid polyps have short bodies (about 1cm) which are usually of the same colour as the common tissue. The autozooid polyps have 8 branched tentacles that are white. The siphonozooids do not emerge from the body membrane and function to pump water through the colony. These look like little dots among the taller autozooid polyps. The autozooids can retract completely into the common tissue. Out of water, the surface of the common tissue has two different kinds of holes; bigger one where the retracted autozooids are, and smaller ones where the siphonozooids are. |
 Sentosa, Aug 05  |
 SIsters Island, Jul 04 |
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Pinwheel leathery corals on Singapore shores
 Sentosa, Aug 05 |
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 Pulau Jong, Jul 06 |
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 Pulau Hantu, Jan 06 |
 Pulau Hantu, Jan 06 |
 Pulau Hantu, Jan 06 |
more photos of pinwheel leathery corals on Singapore shores
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6
*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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Links
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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