Spongites impar’s beige to olive-yellow thallus resembles an elephant’s skin.
associated with the territorial ‘gardening’ limpet, Scutellastra cochlear, more commonly known as the pearshaped limpet, where it forms an extensive covering of
limpets’ shells and the base of the limpet zone. For this
reason, this coralline is commonly known as the cochlear coralline.
Spongites impar, closely related to S. yendoi, is a thicker, strikingly beige to olive-yellow encrusting coralline.
Unlike S. yendoi, individuals do not fuse together so
that distinct entities are separated by paler margins
that are raised and often twisted where individuals
have met. This feature has given rise to the name
‘scrolled crustose coralline’. The texture of this encrust-
Pebbles used by sea urchins to shield themselves from the sun are often covered with the
thin spotted P. acervatum.
ing coralline is characteristically like that of an elephant’s skin. This species is common in areas of strong
wave action.
Phymatolithon acervatum, a thin pale-pink encrusting
coralline, is characteristically found on pebbles
throughout the intertidal area, especially in sheltered
tide pools. Due to the relatively higher disturbance
regime that pebbles can be exposed to, it appears that
thicker encrusting corallines cannot survive on these
pebbles; P. acervatum appears to be an opportunistic
coralline. This coralline often looks spotty as a result of
the loss of its reproductive structures that leave minute
craters at the surface (see insert of the graphic).
Phymatolithon acervatum is characteristically
found encrusting pebbles in intertidal rock
pools.