Family: Plexauridae
Common Name(s): Rough sea plume, Lamarck's muriceopsis
Colony Form: Tall, plumose, with several long main branches and sometimes with secondary plumes arising from main branches, to 75 cm tall.
Axis: Present
Branches: Terminal side branchlets (pinnules) 5-8 cm long, 2.5 mm in diameter, cylindrical, arising from all sides of main branches.
Apertures: Crowded, <1 mm across, sometimes with small lower lip; on all sides of branches and pinnules.
Mucus: None
Color: Purple, purplish-pink, dull brown or buff white; dried colonies olive yellow, grayish yellow, reddish-brown, purple. Colony color depends on proportion of yellow and purple spindles in surface layer.
Sclerites: Outer layer: stout spindles with spines on one side, ~0.3 mm long, and asymmetrical clubs 0.20-0.25 mm long. Axial layer: slender, purple, acute spindles to 0.3 mm long.
Habitat: Shallow to moderate depths (subtidal to 33 m), chiefly on patch reefs.
Distribution: South Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean Sea (possibly Bermuda).
Notes: Superficially similar to plumose Antillogorgia species, but with cylindrical branchlets that arise all around main branches, not just in one plane.
References: Bayer (1961), Cairns (1977), Humann & DeLoach (2002), Sanchez & Wirshing (2005).
Similar Species: Antillogorgia rigida
