The "classic" variety, which caught the eye of Helene. Photo by Helene Clarke A different colour version. Photo by Guido Zsilavecz A white version, found beyond the kelp zone. Photo by Guido Zsilavecz	This cute anemone is a few centimeters in diameter only. While it is not uncommon for anemones to have only 24 tentacles, most of the common ones in Cape Town waters have more. What struck SURG as interesting was that every 4th tentacle is bent inwards. Anemones bend their tentacles to put them into their mouth when feeding, but even Professor Griffiths thought the symmetrical pattern unusual. He has recently co-authored a paper on local anemones but does not recognize this one, and it may possibly be a new species! Peter Southwood suggested "clown anemone" as common name, with reference to the hat worn by court clowns, a name SURG likes. SURG members spent quite some time this weekend looking for this species of anemone, and we managed to find a tiny specimen. What was interesting was that others were photographed without knowing it - they are often so small that they are hard to see! It also turns out that the species most probably has a range of colours - the second photograph has one which lacks the bright yellow-orange tips, and others were spotted on photos which were mostly white or even translucent. But, all of them had the 4th arm pointing inwards - most curious! We have found that it seems to like to between the "roots" of kelp holdfasts, but have also spotted it beyond the kelp zone, directly on the reef wall. If anybody has seen it and photographed a similar individual, please let SURG know! The anemone was photographed by Helene at A-Frame at a depth of about 5m, and the same for Guido's photograph.
References: Thanks to Peter Southwood and Professor Charles Griffiths (UCT) for information.
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