Biodiversity & Conservation

Pink sea fan - Eunicella verrucosa

Eunicella verrucosa

Image Keith Hiscock - Two fans of Eunicella verrucosa showing the two morphs, pink and white. Image width ca 60 cm.
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Distribution map

Eunicella verrucosa recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

Sightings Have you seen Eunicella verrucosa?
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  • WC_Act_1981
  • UK_BAP
Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Cnidaria Sea anemones, corals, sea firs & jellyfish
Class Octocorallia
Authority Pallas, 1766
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Recorded northwards to north Pembrokeshire and eastwards to Portland Bill in Britain. Common in parts of south Devon and Cornwall and at Lundy. Present on the south and west coasts of Ireland but common only in Galway and Donegal Bays.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Found mainly on upward facing bedrock in areas where water movement (wave action or tidal streams) is moderately strong.
Text page icon Description The "pink" sea fan may be white to deep pink in colour. Colonies branch profusely and the branches are covered in warty protuberences from which the small anemone-like polyps emerge. Colonies may be up to 50 cm high but more often up to 25 cm and are usually oriented in one plane (at right angles to the prevailing water currents).
Identifying features
  • Profusely branching fan-shaped colonies with close-set polyps on warty protuberences (calyces).
  • Sclerites are warty spindles in the inner coenenchyme and balloon-club in the outer.
  • Height up to 30 cm.
  • Colour of flesh varies from white to deep orange-pink.
Additional information icon Additional information May be confused with Swiftia pallida, which occurs in Scotland northwards to Scandinavia but is much less branched, has generally thinner branches and may be white or rose coloured.

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This review can be cited as follows:

Dr Keith Hiscock 2007. Eunicella verrucosa. Pink sea fan. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 09/09/2010]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=3317>