Like rows of red jellies, Beadlet Anemones are abundant on the seashore at Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset. They are solitary animals attached by a basal sucker. The body is a simple sac called a polyp; and this is muscular and can contract and expand. There are several circles of tentacles around the open mouth end of the animal. They are frequently found in the intertidal zone of both sheltered and exposed rocky shores where they are able to withstand great fluctations in temperature and salinity.
Most usually they are the deep red colour as in the picture above which shows them aligned along a crevice in one of the many rock platforms at Kimmeridge Bay. The tentacles are withdrawn while the tide is out.
Beadlet Anemones can be other colours as well – like these orange ones shown below living within a small rock pool nearby and with their tentacles partially extended.
For more details of Beadlet Anemones see the Marine Life Information Network Website.
For more information about Kimmeridge Bay see the Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve Web Site.