The brightly coloured Actinia equina, or Beadlet Anemone is a very common sight around the rocky coasts of the Mediterranean, Western Europe and the Atlantic African coast. They are very well adapted to both sheltered and exposed environments and are able to withstand high temperatures and exposure to the air. Related to jellyfish, dependant on the season and amount of sunlight the anemone can be seen in different colours red, brown, green and orange.
There are several advantages for the anemone to stay in tidal pools, firmly attached to the rocks, at low tide whilst preventing dessication the anemone is able to feed via photosynthesis as well as gathering food particles in the water.
It’s 192 tentacles wave around in the water and if they touch passing prey it triggers little threads which have poisoned darts on the end, this paralyses their prey, which they then pull into their mouth. Their diet consists of small fish, plankton crustaceans and larger molluscs.
Unusually for the species, they are very territorial and will fight any other trespassing anemone, until one retreats.
I took this image in Durness on 5th July 2009.
