Venus' Flower Basket
The Venus' flower basket (Euplectella aspergillum) is a glass sponge of the deep western Pacific whose skeleton is a delicate lattice of silica fibers.
The Venus' flower basket (Euplectella aspergillum) is a glass sponge of the deep western Pacific whose skeleton is a delicate lattice of silica fibers. Its cage-like structure has been studied by engineers as a lesson in how to build a strong, light structure from brittle glass.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Venus' Flower Basket Glass Sponge in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Metazoa lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
A Skeleton of Glass: Why Is It So Tough?
The skeleton is built of silica spicules arranged in a hierarchy from nanometers to centimeters, with layers of glass glued by organic material and a pattern of diagonal struts. This architecture resists buckling and cracking much better than the same glass in bulk. Some spicules also carry light like optical fibers.
A Shrimp Couple for Life
A young male and female shrimp enter the basket, grow too large to leave and live out their lives inside, feeding on debris captured by the sponge. Dried baskets with the shrimp skeletons have been given as wedding gifts in Japan as a symbol of lasting union.
Glass Sponges
Hexactinellids are sponges with a syncytial tissue in which many nuclei share one continuous cytoplasm. Reefs of glass sponges grow in deep water and some live for thousands of years.
Venus' Flower Basket at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Euplectella aspergillum |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Porifera |
| Class | Hexactinellida |
| Order | Lyssacinosida |
| Family | Euplectellidae |
| Field Guide group | Porifera: Sponges (Basal Metazoans) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Curved cylindrical woven basket of fused six-rayed silica spicules, continuous syncytial tissue, often housing a pair of trapped shrimp. |
| Class | Hexactinellida |
| Skeleton | Silica spicules |