top of page
Sea cypress hydroid, whiteweed hydroid
Sponge & Cnidarian
Sea cypress hydroid, whiteweed hydroid
Sertularia cupressina Linnaeus, 1758
WoRMS AphialID
117913
Sample IDs
HMSC174_01045 https://bench.boldsystems.org/index.php/MAS_DataRetrieval_OpenSpecimen?selectedrecordid=ATCCN037-24; Quoddy 172 https://bench.boldsystems.org/index.php/MAS_DataRetrieval_OpenSpecimen?selectedrecordid=ATCCN189-25; GM2024_20 https://bench.boldsystems.org/index.php/MAS_DataRetrieval_OpenSpecimen?selectedrecordid=ATCCN173-25
Collected
Nova Scotia (Spectacle Islands), Quebec (Cap de Bon-Desir, St Lawrence), Bay of Fundy (Wolves, Western Isles, Grand Manan)
Distinguishing Features
• Long hydroid reaching up to 60 cm but usually 10–30 cm.
• Bushy colony that looks like an animal's tail.
• Primary branches much branched, branching in a single plane.
• Branches with subopposite pairs of hydrothecae.
• 2+ hydrocladia per stem segment.
• Hydrothecae bidentate, operculum bivalved.
• Gonothecae flattened with two distal spines.
Habitat
Attaches onto stones, shells, and bedrock. Common in tide swept areas.
Geographic Range
Arctic and both sides of the north Atlantic.
Fun Fact
There is some debate as to whether this is a separate species from Sertularia argentea and taxonomic revision is required. S. argentea is meant to have 1 hydrocladium (branch bearing hydrothecae) per stem segment.
Barcode Distribution
BIN is private.
bottom of page