Wandering Sea Anemone

Image: Richard Ling
Phlyctenactis tuberculosa

Hey, look! A pile of baked beans!

Image: John Turnbull

Or jelly beans?

Image: John Turnbull

Marshmallows?

This baffling mound of madness, this ball of balls, is a sea anemone from south Australia and New Zealand.

Image: Saspotato

It spends the day curled up in a ball and only at night does it open up...

Image: Saspotato

And set its tentacles to work catching food.

Image: Saspotato

Now it looks like a perfectly ordinary sea anemone. At least from the top...

Image: Saspotato

But look at it from the side and you can see all those bulging blobs all over its 15 cm (6 in) column.

Video: Oliver Gibbs

These blobs, or bladder-like vesicles, provide the Wandering Sea Anemone with sufficient buoyancy to wander.

Wandering Anemones can cling onto rocks and seaweed when they want to, it's just that they don't always want to. When the spirit of adventure overcomes them, they release their hold and let the current take them to pastures new. They can even use undulations of their tentacles to swim.

Image: John Turnbull

That's why they're also known as Swimming Anemones and Beach Ball Anemones.

Yet another name they go by is Brain Anemone. I guess some people prefer the idea of coming across a brain rolling along the sea floor than a pile of jelly beans. There's no accounting for taste.