Sea anemones are very deceptive.  They may look like pretty flowers waving their petals in the current but they are dangerous carnivorous animals, if you are tiny enough to be their prey.

Like bluebottles, sea anemones have stinging cells called nematocysts which inject a poison.  However, when we are stung by bluebottles we are certainly aware of it as the pain is so intense.  On the other hand, if you gently touch an anemone’s tentacles, while you can feel the nematocysts attach to your skin, it is a sticky sensation, and the poison of most of our common sea anemones does not affect humans.

Two sea anemones that you will probably see when you explore local rock pools are the Green Anemone (Aulactinia veratra, formerly Cnidopus verater) and the Shellgrit or Speckled Anemone (Oulactis muscosa). The Green Anemone has a dark green column, and lighter green tentacles. It prefers pools and water-filled cracks near the low tide mark.

The Shellgrit Anemone is much harder to see because it is often partly buried in sand or shellgrit. As long as it remains covered by water it can sometimes be found where the rocks merge into beach. It has about three rows of pale tentacles with darker bands. The shorter ones hold onto the grit. The Shellgrit Anemone is thought to feed mainly on molluscs such as small mussels that are dislodged by waves.

Anemones are not fixed to the one place. The bottom of the column is closed by a muscular disc that clings to the rock and is very hard to dislodge. However, the anemone can let go and glide slowly to a new location when it needs to.

Because sea anemones have a planktonic larval stage they are widely dispersed. Studies have shown that the Speckled Anemone produces eggs and sperm almost continuously and new anemones are always arriving to settle and interbreed with the locals.