Giant Plumose Anemone
Metridium farcimen
Marine Invertebrates
Rocky subtidal habitat
iNaturalist records: May-Aug 2023
Meet this species
Giant plumose anemones are among the most dramatic suspension-feeding animals visible beneath the surface around Greene Point. Although they resemble flowers, they are animals that use hundreds of tentacles to capture tiny organisms and organic particles carried past them by moving seawater. Their size makes an otherwise invisible process - feeding from the current - easy to visualize.
Giant plumose anemone with a broad crown of fine tentacles underwater near Greene Point.
What to look for:
Look for a tall pale column topped with an extraordinary crown of fine, feathery tentacles. Giant plumose anemones can be white, cream, orange or brownish and may grow impressively large. In suitable places several may occur together on rock or other firm surfaces.
Why It Matters Here:
Greene Point is shaped by moving water, and plumose anemones turn that physical force into something biological. Their presence shows how currents transport food through the marine ecosystem and support dense communities attached to the rocky seafloor.
Field Record
Documented at Greene Point through field observations and photographs recorded on iNaturalist.