We come upon a narrow channel lined with green anemones. They’re beautiful! They look just like daisies. Each has a ring of tentacles surrounding a hole in the center, which is the mouth. Dad explains that anemones are closely related to jellyfish, and both belong to the group Cnidarians. They’re basically cup-shaped, with stinging tentacles arranged in a circle around a central mouth. So the anemones, flower look-alikes, are predatory animals; they paralyze their prey using special stinging cells. I lightly touch the tentacles; they pull on my finger, like sandpaper. Dad says microscopic darts are being fired into my finger. “But it doesn’t hurt,” I tell him. “Nope, but if you were a tiny fish, you’d be paralyzed and eaten by now!” he answers.	Lion's mane jellyfish
Even a careless crab can wind up as an anemone’s lunch. Nearby we find a large green anemone that has captured a small crab, digested its soft parts, and is now spitting out the indigestible shell! (Above) Anemone captures sea star.	(Photo above) Anemone spits out crab shell
" Some anemone specieslive half buried in the sand or gravel,” Dad tells me, “with only their tentacles sticking out, trying to catch food.” He points out one of these burrowing anemones (photo right). Members of other species are out in the open, with stalks anchored firmly on the hard bottom. They can change their location, though, by creeping very slowly along on the base of their stalk, which Dad calls a pedal disk. (Photo above) Plumose anemone on dock)
	“My favorites are the big green ones!” I tell Dad. I can see them everywhere, tucked into rocky crevices or lining the sides and bottoms of tide pools. “Why do those anemones over there have their tentacles folded up?” I ask. Dad explains that when exposed to air by low tide, anemones turn their tentacles inward and shrink a little to stay moist inside. [Photo: left]
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