Biodiversity & Conservation

The tall sea pen - Funiculina quadrangularis

Funiculina quadrangularis

Image Bernard Picton - Funiculina quadrangularis, tall sea pen. Image width ca 50 cm.
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Distribution map

Funiculina quadrangularis recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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  • 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 West and north coasts of Ireland and Scotland.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Found in muddy substrata on sheltered coasts, especially in sea lochs. Sublittoral to deep offshore water.
Text page icon Description A tall, narrow sea pen, which can exceed 2 metres in height. It has a calcareous white axis, square in section. The polyps are irregularly arranged along the axis or tend to form oblique rows. They are white or pale pink in colour.
Identifying features
  • Axis white, and box like in cross section.
  • Lower quarter of stem forms a smooth peduncle, upper one third is curved.
  • Autozooids irregularly arranged on rachis or in short oblique rows, retractile within toothed cup shaped indentations (calyces).
  • Autozooids often pink.
Additional information icon Additional information

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This review can be cited as follows:

Olwen Ager & Catherine Wilding 2009. Funiculina quadrangularis. The tall sea pen. 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=3353>