Black sea fan on wood stand

Small black gorgonia from the Filipinos, on solid lime tree stand. Gorgonians, like corals, are animals living in sessile colonial polyps, organized in a tree shape. Each polyp has 8 tentacles that filter the plankton and consume it. The general structure, a skeleton both soft and hard, called gorgonine do not grow in the direction of the sun (it does not require light to grow) but perpendicular to the current, in order to filter a maximum of water flow.