Mike Human, age 12, of Dallas, Texas, for his question:
What kind of plant is coral?
A piece of coral may look like a branching tree, a delicate frond or squat, chubby bush, Even the experts who named the coral were reminded of the plant world, The scientific name of the coral class is Anthrozoa, which means plant animals. The daisy faced sea anemone also belongs in the Anthrozoa class. But both of them are animals. The coral itself, however, is not the graceful little stone tree we find in the novelty store. That pretty object is an apartment house built b y countless little coral animals.
The coral house is built underwater, usually in some warm, shallow sea. The coral animal never leaves his home once he has built it, All we see is his little face like a star or a flower hanging out of a window. His home is a small room just large enough to hold him. His body is a soft blob of gristle called a polyp. It is a chunky stem which is no more than a bag to hold his stomach. At the lower end is a foot, fixed firmly to the stony floor of his living room. The upper end is the flowery face poking out of the living room window,
The face is no more than a mouth surrounded b y tiny tentacles, The tentacles wave gracefully through the water, feeling around for midget fish end other tiny swimmers. They also fan a constant stream of water down through the coral apartment house. The water carries life giving oxygen and bits of floating food to the coral animals who have apartments on the inside of the building,
Most dry coral is white. In the water it is part of a rainbow tinted wonderland. Shimmering sunbeams filter through the blue green water into a variegated garden where the branching trees, the thick bushes and delicate blossoms are made from stony coral.
Gaudy fish glide and hide among the fairy foliage. Your piece of pale coral was made in one of the world’s beauty spots.
A baby coral is a bud sprouting from its parents body. He grows, breaks free and swims away. But he soon gives up his freedom and settles down, usually on the family apartment house. There may be many vacant apartments, but our young coral will build his own. His body can sift chemicals from sea water and turn them into stony cement. This is the material he uses to build first the floor then the walls of his home, just big enough to hold him. Here, with tentacles hanging from the window in his roof, he will spend all the rest of his life.