Family: Gorgoniidae

Common Name(s): Deichmann's sea plume

Colony Form: Pinnate, plumose, <1 m tall.

Axis: Cylindrical

Branches: Pinnules short, flattened, flexible, irregularly spaced, to 5.0 cm long, 1-2 mm wide and 3.5-10.0 mm apart (average 6 mm), tapered but with tips slightly bulbous, arising at 40-45º angle toward branch tip, oriented in one plane.

Apertures: Slit-like, chiefly flush and distributed along pinnule edges in single or alternating double series.

Mucus: None

Color: Lavender; dries pale violet, tan or yellow.

Sclerites: Polyp armature: numerous flat rods to 0.14 mm long. Body wall: scaphoids (curved sclerites) with pointed or blunt, finely spinose ends, to 0.25 mm long and with a slight medial waist; convex profile smooth or finely spiny. Spindles to 0.24 mm long.

Habitat: Reefs at depths of 2-30 m.

Distribution: Bahamas, South Florida, and Caribbean Sea.

Notes: Similar to Antillogorgia bipinnata but with pinnules thicker, more widely spaced, and not regularly distributed. May be preyed on by the flamingo tongue gastropod Cyphoma gibbosum. Williams and Chen (2012) transferred all Western Atlantic species of Pseudopterogorgia to the genus Antillogorgia. Sánchez and Wirshing (2005) treat A. albatrossae Bayer (1961) as a synonym of this species. The species was named for octocoral researcher Elisabeth Deichmann.

References: Bayer (1961), Cairns (1977), Harvell & Fenical (1989), Sanchez & Wirshing (2005), Williams & Chen (2012).

Similar Species: Antillogorgia bipinnata; Antillogorgia kallos