Cushion coral - Cladocora caespitosa
Cushion coral, Cladocora caespitosa is a typical madrepore of the Mediterranean Sea, it belongs to the Hexacorallia class and to the Cnidaria phylum.
It usually has a brownish, beige or dirty white color, this one in the video is unusually very white, probably because it is “still young”. It is a colony of polyps that live in symbiosis with zooxanthellae algae. The polyps form calcium carbonate deposits that form the cells in which they live and that make the madrepore grow in size. In this video made while freediving we are on a seabed of 10-12 meters but the madrepore can live up to 60 meters.
Cushion coral, Cladocora caespitosa (Linnaeus, 1758), also commonly known as loaf madrepore for the typical shape of its colonies, is a madrepore of the Hexacorallia class.
Description
Light garnet colored polyps, about 5 millimeters in diameter that form cushion-shaped colonies, in symbiosis with the zooxanthellae of the genus Symbiodinium. It produces calcium carbonate deposits with which it forms the calcareous cases in which it lives. It is the largest madrepore in the Mediterranean Sea, reaching up to 50 centimeters in diameter.
Distribution and habitat
It is an endemic species of the Mediterranean Sea where it has been reported since the Upper Pliocene. Common on rocky seabeds, from a few meters up to 60 meters deep. In the marine lake Veliko Jezero, within the nature reserve of the island of Mljet in Croatia, the presence of a small coral reef made up of Cladocora caespitosa has been reported. This is one of the few cases of coral reef adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea.
Reproduction
The colonies grow by budding, but the species spreads through the settlement of planktonic larvae on the substrates most suitable for colonization.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladocora_caespitosa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladocora_caespitosa
Gallery
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