Phylum: Cnidaria

Class: Anthozoa

Subclass: Octocorallia

Order: Alcyonacea

 

Norwegian: bløtkoraller

(Kalurdalen - The Trondheim fjord / 12 meters / 12.16.2001)

The soft corals -Alcyonacea is one of four orders of the Octorallia class, identified by the eight tentacles. The two other orders represented here are the sea pens and the sea fans.

These eight-armed, colonial corals are represented by two families in Norwegian waters, Alcyoniidae and Neptheidae. Typical for the soft corals is the soft and fleshy stem.