Details
Corallium rubrum
Red coral is a precious coral that forms colonies on dim rocky reefs and is valued for its red skeleton. Harvest for jewelry makes careful management important, including deeper colonies.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
It grows on dim rocky bottoms, cave walls, and drop-offs in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic. Main habitat types in this guide are reef, coast, ocean.
Typical length 5-30 cm, weight 5 g-500 g. White polyps sit on a branching red skeleton as the colony grows.
It is active in repeated bouts across day and night and colonial or group-living. Attached to rock, it extends tentacles into currents to capture drifting particles.
It is a filter feeder. Polyps filter plankton and fine organic particles from moving water.
Colonies grow slowly, and larvae drift before settling on suitable rock.
Information is limited, and distribution or population status remains difficult to assess. Harvest for jewelry makes careful management important, including deeper colonies.
