[Coral-List] land based coral sprouting!!!!

[shashank Keshavmurthy]

Hello listers!!!
Its nice to be giving out some interesting
information..... (most of the time I end up askig
a question!!!)
I don`t  know how much infromation goes out of
Japan to reach other parts of the world.
I hope this has deifnitely not reached.  This
article was published in August 8th 2004 edition
of “The Daily Yomiuri“ English version of one of
the leading Japanese daily newspapers.  Here I am
typing it as it is;

Land Based Coral Sprouting

A piece of coral taken from Kagoshima Prefecture
18 years ago has marine biologists puzzled.
Fukuji Fujima, a 77-year old resident of Atami,
Shizuoka Prefecture, ocassionaly waters the
coral, which he placed in his garden.  His eldest
daughter, Takako Kagiwada, brought it back from a
visit to Amami Oshima island, Kagoshima
Prefecture.
The piece recently started to sprout white
branches, even though coral generally cannot live
out of water.
“Its impossible for dead coral to grow branches,
but these branches really look like a coral,“ a
researcher said.
In May, Kagiwada who lives in the same
neighbourhood as her father, gave him the coral
after he asked if he could use it to decorate his
bonsai garden.
In June white branches began to grow from a solid
gray section of the piece.  The longest branch
measures about 3 cms.
Seeing the photographs of the coral, a staff
member of Kushimoto Marine Park in Kushimoto cho,
Wakayama Prefecture, identified the specimen as a
variation of Shoga sango, or Stylopora
pistillata.
“A branch inside the old coral must have sprouted
when the outer coat broke, but it`s very
strange,“ he said.
Fujima said he wanted the coral to keep growing,
but did not know exactly what he should do.   

This is very interesting isn`t it...........at
least it has made me think a lot........i hope
all u out there will do the same.....

Best
Shashank

=====
"the role of infinitely small in nature is infinitely large"-Louis Pasteur                

Keshavmurthy Shashank
Kochi University, Faculty of Agriculture
Lab. of AQUa. Environ. Sci. (LAQUES)
Otsu 200, Monobe, Nankoku-shi
783-8502, Kochi, Japan
alt. id: shashank at cc.kochi-u.ac.jp
phone: 81 090 8285 9012