---
title: Leaf Oyster (Dendostrea folium)
scientific_name: Dendostrea folium
common_name: Leaf Oyster
taxon: Oysters
published: 2026-08-04T10:47:54.572Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:11:25.890Z
tags: Leaf Oyster, Dendostrea folium, Oysters, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/oysters/leaf-oyster
---

# Leaf Oyster (*Dendostrea folium*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Oysters (*Ostreida*)
- **Size:** up to 7 cm
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Filter feeder
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Gorgonian sea fans, sea whips and coral branches

## How to recognise it

- clamped along a gorgonian branch, molded around it
- margin scalloped into small regular folds
- shell thin, flattened, often reddish or purple

A small, thin, flattened oyster that grows clamped along the branch of a gorgonian or a sea whip rather than on rock, with the lower valve molded into a groove around the stem it settled on. The species name folium means leaf, for the flattened leaf-like shell. Margins are scalloped into small regular folds, and color ranges from reddish and purple to dull brown, frequently matching the host branch closely enough to be missed at a glance. Length reaches about 7 cm (2.8 in).

Sitting up in the water column on a host branch puts the animal directly in the current, which suits a filter feeder: it strains plankton and suspended organic matter from water that is already moving past. Several individuals commonly line up along a single gorgonian, spaced out along the branch. It occurs on reef slopes and drop-offs where sea fans are abundant, from about 1 m down to 30 m (100 ft), and is among the easiest small oysters to find in the Red Sea simply because its hosts are conspicuous. Empty valves stay locked onto dead gorgonian skeletons long after the animal has gone.

## Also known as

- **English:** leaf oyster, Foliate Oyster
- **French:** huître feuille
- **Italian:** Ostrica foglia
- **German:** Blattauster
- **Spanish:** ostión hoja
- **Japanese:** ワニガキ
- **Chinese:** 齒緣牡蠣
- **Russian:** Листовая устрица
- **KO:** 악어굴
- **TH:** หอยนางรมป่าเลน

## Scientific synonyms

- *Alectryonella haliotidaea* (Lamarck, 1819)
- *Dendrostrea folium* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Lopha folium* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Lopha theca* Röding, 1798
- *Ostraea affinis* G. B. Sowerby II, 1871
- *Ostraea dubia* G. B. Sowerby II, 1871
- *Ostrea bresia* Iredale, 1939
- *Ostrea cognata* Jousseaume, 1888
- *Ostrea erucella* Lamarck, 1819
- *Ostrea folium* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Ostrea fucorum* Lamarck, 1819
- *Ostrea haliotidaea* Lamarck, 1819
- *Ostrea labrella* Lamarck, 1819
- *Ostrea serra* Dall, 1914
- *Ostrea sinuata* Lamarck, 1819

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/oysters/leaf-oyster)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*