Anadara granosa (also known as Tegillarca granosa) is a species of ark clam known as the blood cockle due to the red haemoglobin liquid inside. It is found throughout the Indo-Pacific region from the eastern coast of South Africa northwards and eastwards to Southeast Asia, Australia, Polynesia, and up to northern Japan. It lives mainly in the intertidal zone at one to two metres water depth, burrowed down into sand or mud. Adult size is about 5 to 6 cm long and 4 to 5 cm wide.
It has a high economic value as food, and it is kept in aquaculture. Just on the coast of Zhejiang Province alone, blood cockle plantations occupy around 145,000 mu (about 100 km2) of mudflats. These claims are raised in the river estuaries of the neighboring Fujian Province as well.
It is served steamed, boiled, roasted, or traditionally raw.
Famous quotes containing the word blood:
“On fields all drenched with blood he made his record in war, abstained from lawless violence when left on the plantation, and received his freedom in peace with moderation. But he holds in this Republic the position of an alien race among a people impatient of a rival. And in the eyes of some it seems that no valor redeems him, no social advancement nor individual development wipes off the ban which clings to him.”
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)