This colonial hydroid grows fom the 0.2 tidal level to over 20 meters in depth in various places throughout the Race Rocks Marine Protected Area. At low tide, it is visible in several protected crevices and in Anita's tidepool ( #6 on the West shore) Subtidally it is common in both purple and pink colonies . East of the Middle Islands, it has been observed by divers at 20 meters, growing in erect branching form of considerable profile
( to 20 centimeters.)
 In July of 2002, Dr. Anita Brinckmann-Voss of Sooke had Alberto Lindner, a PhD student from Duke University visiting to exchange scientific information and to get help with identification of hydroids from collections in Alaska and the Olympic Penninsula.
Alberto is studying the systematics and evolution of hydrocorals using morphological and molecular biology methods for his Ph.D. thesis. His supervisor and advisors are Dr. Stephen Cairns (Smithsonian) , Dr.Chris Cunningham ( Duke University) and Dr. Dale Calder (Royal Ontario Museum) This is part of a program of training young zoologists in established and new methods of sytematics. Alberto comes from Brazil, having completed a Master's degree in the University of Sao Paolo.
Anita made arrangements with us to get Alberto to the islands so that he could see Allopora growing in its natural habitat. Although it was not a zero tide level, we were still able to collect several small samples for him to do DNA analysis. He hoped to be able to sort out whether or not there is a distinct species difference in the color varieties we find at Race Rocks. After returning to his lab and doing further analysis, Alberto reported that "It is pretty safe to say that the purple and pink color morphs of Stylaster corals (Allopora) from Race Rocks are the same species". He has also noted the same result with deep-sea species from the Aleutians, as the orange and pink forms there do not separate the species.
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