Strawberry Anemone, Corynactus californica

Strawberry Anemone, Corynactus californica. Underwater photographs taken in the coastal waters off Monterey, California, February 2022. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah.

Phylogeny:  The Strawberry Anemone, Corynactus californica (Carlgren, 1936),  is a member of the Corallimorphidae family of Corallimorphs or Coral Anemones. The genus Corynactus is one of five genera in this family, and there are thirteen species in this genus. The Strawberry Anemone is also known as the California Anemone and the Club-Tipped Anemone and in Mexico as Anémona Fresa. Actinia fragacea, from the Atlantic Ocean is also known as the Strawberry Anemone.

Morphology: Strawberry Anemones, like true corals and true anemones, have radial symmetry, a hollow digestive cavity, and specialized stinging structures in tentacles surrounding the mouth. The differ from true corals in that they lack a calcareous external skeleton. They differ from true anemones in that their tentacles end in knobs and their tentacles are not retractile. The disk of these animals is about the same diameter as the column. The disk is surrounded by translucent white tentacles that end in white knobs. The column and disc are usually red or orange but may also be brown, pink, purple, yellow, or white. Strawberry Anemones can reach 2.5 cm (1.0 inch) in diameter and 7.5 cm (2.9 inches) in height.

Habitat and Distribution: Strawberry Anemones live on rocks and other hard surfaces, including mollusks and crustaceans. They thrive in shaded areas, such as under the canopy of the kelp forest and prefer areas where currents prevail, providing them with more food. They are found from the low intertidal zone to depths of 95 m (312 feet). Strawberry Anemones are a temperate Eastern Pacific species that have a very limited distribution on Mexico’s Pacific coast, ranging from the United States border to San Martin Island, Baja California. They have not been reported from the Sea of Cortez.

Diet: Strawberry Anemones are predators, using their stinging tentacles to capture copepods, Nauplius larvae, and other minute animals.

Predators:  Strawberry Anemones are prey for the Leather Star,  Dermasterias imbricata  and Purple-Ring Topsnails, Calliostoma annulatum.

Reproduction:  Strawberry Anemones are gonochoric (male or female for life). They can reproduce  asexually, through budding or fission, and sexually. Sexual reproduction involves broadcast spawning with external fertilization. The gametes are stored in the gastrovascular cavity and are expelled through the mouth. Gametes released into the surrounding water form embryos that turn into planktonic larvae within two or three days. The larvae settle to the bottom and metamorphose into their adult, benthic, form.  Spawning typically occurs from late November to mid-December.

Ecosystem Interactions: Strawberry Anemones are aggressively territorial. They will kill off neighboring anemones and corals and take over that space by reproducing clones of themselves. This results in aggregations of these animals that are all the same color. Strawberry Anemones are known to host Corallicolids, a type of intracellular parasitic apicomplexan. Also, Strawberry Anemones are commensal epibionts on mussels and oysters. The anemone’s tentacles protect these hosts from predation by sea stars.

Human Interactions: Strawberry Anemones have no direct impact on human activities. From a conservation perspective they have not been formally evaluated however they are fairly common with a relatively wide distribution and should be consider to be of Least Concern.

Synonyms:  None