Preview
Family
Gorgoniidae
Common Name(s)
Beauty sea plume
Colony Form
Pinnate, plumose,tall.
Axis
Cylindrical
Branches
cylindrical, short and thin, usually 2.5-4.0 cm long (to 7.0 cm), crowded and not usually paired,
Apertures
Flush; no calices; polyps arranged in multiple series on each side of pinnule, separated by narrow naked tract on front and back.
Mucus
None
Color
Dries yellow to grayish brown with purple tinge.
Sclerites
Polyp armature: narrow slender rods with enlarged tuberculate ends, to 0.08 mm long. Body wall: scaphoids (curved sclerites) with transverse ornamentation on convex side developed as continuous collar-like ridges rather than individual tubercles, to 0.14 mm long; narrow spindles to 0.16 mm long.
Habitat
On reefs; depth range unknown.
Distribution
South Florida, Cuba.
Similar Species
Date Taken
4-11-2016
Notes
Similar to A. elisabethae, but with pinnules thinner, more crowded, oriented at an angle toward branch tip and not strictly in one plane. Williams and Chen (2012) transferred all Western Atlantic species of Pseudopterogorgia to the genus Antillogorgia.