Family: Gorgoniidae

Common Name(s): Rigid sea plume

Colony Form: Pinnate, plumose, to 1.5 m tall.

Axis: Cylindrical

Branches: Pinnules round, long, tapered near tips, irregularly spaced, stiffer than others in the genus but still flexible.

Apertures: Slit-like to oval, 1 mm across, in single irregular row or multiple series not strongly restricted to sides of pinnules. Also irregularly distributed or in winding row(s) along main branches.

Mucus: None

Color: Pale lavender both alive and preserved; dries tan to white.

Sclerites: Polyp armature: few small simple rods or none. Body wall: scaphoids (curved sclerites) with smooth convex profile and blunt tips bearing clusters of tubercles, 0.07-0.11 mm long; spindles blunt, to 0.13 mm long.

Habitat: On reefs as shallow as 4 m, but typically deeper, 15-50 m.

Distribution: South Florida, Bahamas, West Indies.

Notes: Williams and Chen (2012) transferred all Western Atlantic species of Pseudopterogorgia to the genus Antillogorgia. Sanchez & Wirshing (2005) treat A. blanquillensis (Stiasny, 1941) as a junior synonym of A. rigida. May be preyed upon by the flamingo tongue gastropod Cyphoma gibbosum.

References: Bayer (1961), Cairns (1977), Harvell & Fenical (1989), Sanchez & Wirshing (2005).

Similar Species: Antillogorgia acerosa