Preview
Family
Gorgoniidae
Common Name(s)
Yellow sea whip, Yellow ribbon, Gold ribbon, Green lace gorgonian
Colony Form
Small, bushy, with lateral branching, often in one or few planes, usually no more than 30 cm tall (maximum recorded 46 cm)
Axis
Black, cylindrical to slightly compressed.
Branches
Stiff; terminal branches in particular flattened, to 6 mm across and up to 6 cm long; sometimes with small terminal branches arising laterally in irregularly pinnate pattern.
Apertures
Individual slit-like calices along narrow edges of blades.
Mucus
None
Color
Yellow to green; occasional orange to purple; margins purple or with purple calices; polyps white to tan.
Sclerites
Polyp armature: small, blunt rods with few weak bumps or thorns, to 0.08 mm long. Body wall: stout spindles with few to many large simple to complex tubercles, to 0.16 mm long; scaphoids (curved sclerites) stout, compact, often with blunt ends, to 0.16 mm long; ornamentation of crowded complex, sometimes fused tubercles.
Habitat
Inshore, shallow areas from back reefs to patch reefs; 1-10 m depth.
Distribution
South Florida, Bahamas, Caribbean Sea.
Similar Species
Date Taken
4-11-2016
Notes
In the other local species of Pterogorgia, P. anceps, polyps arise from a common groove along the length of the blade.