Description

Also known as Octocoral, Sea Pansy.

Found singly or in colonies, in shallow waters on soft sandy bottoms, attached by their stalks, if dislodged they will float free and often be washed ashore.
They feed on plankton.
Length - 10cm
Depth - 0-50m
Widespread Western Atlantic

Its predator is the striped sea slug - Armina tigrina

The sea pansy is a collection of polyps with different forms and functions. A single, giant polyp up to two inches in diameter forms the anchoring stem (peduncle). This peduncle can be distended to better anchor the colony in the substrate. The pansy-like body bears many small, anemone-like feeding polyps. A cluster of tentacle less polyps form an outlet valve that releases water to deflate the colony. If the colony is on a sand bar at low tide, it usually deflates and becomes covered with a thin film of silty sand. Small white dots between the feeding polyps are polyps that act as pumps to expand the deflated colony. The feeding polyps secrete a sticky mucus to trap tiny organisms suspended in the water. The colony�??s rigidity and purple color come from calcium carbonate spicules throughout the polyps tissues.
The sea pansy is strikingly bioluminescent when disturbed because of the interplay between a luciferase (Renilla-luciferin 2-monooxygenase) and green fluorescent protein (GFP). Both molecules have recently become extremely important in biology Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renilla_muelleri