Leafy seadragon
Amazing fact
The leafy seadragon has sharp spines on its sides that help defend it against predators.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The leafy seadragon has sharp spines on its sides that help defend it against predators.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Leafy seadragon
- Scientific name
- Phycodurus eques
- Japanese name
- リーフィーシードラゴン
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Syngnathiformes
- Family
- Syngnathidae
- Genus
- Phycodurus
Its whole body has leafy, seaweed-like flaps that make it look like brown seaweed.
The flaps look like fins, but it actually swims with its clear dorsal and pectoral fins.
How the Leafy seadragon lives
It lives in clear, dimly lit water with vegetation, such as seagrass meadows and seaweed beds. Its main food is mysid shrimp. It opens its mouth by expanding a joint on the lower snout and sucks food in. It moves very slowly and tends to swim alone or in pairs.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Range
- Southern Australia
Where the Leafy seadragon has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- リーフィーシードラゴン
- 简体中文
- 叶形海龙
- 繁體中文
- 葉形海龍
- 한국어
- 나뭇잎해룡
- Español
- Dragón de mar foliado
- Français
- Dragon de mer feuillu
- Deutsch
- Großer Fetzenfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Dragão-marinho-folhado
- Italiano
- Dragone foglia
- العربية
- تنين البحر المورق
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Naga laut berdaun
- Tiếng Việt
- Hải long lá
- Русский
- Тряпичник
- Türkçe
- Yapraklı deniz ejderi
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — リーフィーシードラゴンChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Phycodurus equesChecked: 2026-11-06
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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