Warty Sea Anemones

Bunodosoma granulifera (Red Warty)

There are two Warty Sea Anemones that are very similar. The Red Warty Sea Anemone has a muscular column that is reddish brown to brick red with a red to reddish brown oral disc and has fine lines radiating out to the tentacles. The Warty Sea Anemone is slightly smaller whose columns are olive green to muddy brown with vertical rows of different shades of color with striped or blotched tentacles. They can be fully expanded (picture #6) or closed up (picture #3) during the day. Sea Anemones usually attach themselves to a hard substrate but do have the ability to move. They have poison toxins in their tentacles that paralyze their prey. The stickiness of sea anemone tentacles comes from the cells that attach themselves to what ever touches them and injects a dose of poison into the flesh.

The American Warty Anemone Bunodosoma cavernata (picture 10) has no markings on the tentacles and the muscular column has no vertical lines.