Susan Mitchell, age 11, of Leaksv

Is the sea anemone a flower?

A tidal pool of sea anemones looks for all the world like a garden in bloom. Surely they must be underwater flowers, daisies perhaps, with delicately tinted petals. Their pretty little top‑knots even seem to stand on chubby little stems. Nevertheless, sea anemones are not flowers. Nor are they members of the plant world.

The sea anemone is actually a hungry animal fishing for food. His stomach is inside that chubby stem. His mouth is a round hole in the middle of his ring of petals. The petals, sad to say, are actually tentacles.