Anemones!

Clownfish and Anemone, linocut, 9.25" x 12.5" by Ele Willoughby, 2024

 

August is coastal month for #InsertAnInvert2024 so I made a couple of anemone prints. For the first prompt 'tropical reef' I made a rose bubble anemone.This is a handprinted linocut of two ocean creatures with a mutualistic symbiotic relationship: anemone and anemonefish. Specifically it's a rose bubble-tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) and a clownfish (in the genus Amphiprion), also known as an anemonefish. Sea anemones protect anemonefish from predators, and serve as a safe nest. The anemonefish get food from anemone leftovers and the occasional dead anemone tentacles. In return, the anemonefish defends the anemone from its predators and parasites and nitrogen excreted by the anemonefish increases the number of algae incorporated into the tissue of their hosts, which aids the anemone in tissue growth and regeneration. The fish even aerate their hosts with their movements and may lure anemone pray with their bright colours.

For prompt 'temperate reef', I shared my lemon lolly nudibranch again. For the prompt 'intertidal' I re-posted the ochre sea stars. But, for the prompt 'sand' I made a wandering anemone linocut.

Wandering Sea Anemone, linocut, 8" x 10", Ele Willoughby, 2024

This is my hand-printed Lino block print of a wandering sea anemone (Phlyctenactis tuberculosa) on 8” x 10” Japanese mulberry paper. The wandering sea anemone or swimming anemone, is a species of venomous sea anemone in the family Actiniidae native to sheltered reefs of shallow seas around Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa. They are covered in bubble like sacks in a variety of colours (including pink!) with lighter coloured tentacles. It bundles together during the day and its appearance has been likened to baked beans. At night it comes alive and goes wandering; though generally attached to rock, seagrasses and kelp, it can detach its pedestal disk and creep along the seabed, climb sea grasses or algae to find better places to hunt prey.