Blue Button
by Paul Rebmann
Title
Blue Button
Artist
Paul Rebmann
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
A blue button washed up on the beach. Blue buttons - Porpita porpita - are pelagic marine organisms made up of a colony of hydroids that live in the round chambered float made of a chitin-like material.
This image has been featured in the following groups:
Go Take A Hike Photography Group (8/13/2023) &
The 200 Club - best photos with over 200 views up to 500 (07/16/2016)
These pelagic marine organisms occasionally wash up on Florida beaches, sometimes in great numbers. Blue buttons passively float on the surface of tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
Each blue button is actually a colony of hydroids that live in the round chambered float made of a chitin-like material. The disks range from 2-4cm (~3/4 - 1-1/2in.) in diameter and when alive are mostly brown on top. The individual zooids range from a bright blue turquoise to yellow, and each have specialized functions such as prey capture, digestion or reproduction. In the center of the underside is the 'mouth' which takes in food and expels waste. The tentacles have stinging cells to stun prey. These are not powerful enough to harm humans, but some people have reported an irritation from contact.
(Subject description from the artist's Wild Florida Photo website www.wildflphoto.com)
Uploaded
August 25th, 2014
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Viewed 1,542 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/19/2024 at 10:46 PM
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