This Marine Creature, Grows Leaves?

This leafy creature is a member of the Syngnathidae family, this family includes sea dragons, pipefish, and sea horses. They have adapted to blend in with their environment so well they are almost impossible to spot amongst kelp and seaweed they live amongst.

Native to the waters offshore of south and east Australia. The leafy dragon is usually brown, with a slight olive/yellow tint on its leaf-like appendages. They have a similar body shape to the sea horse, this makes sense since they are both related.

Funnily enough, these Appendages are not used to swim they aren't used for anything apart from camouflage, these creatures use two tiny fins to move, these fins are so thin they are almost transparent.

Because they are from the same family, the sea dragon reproduces in a similar way to sea horses. With both sea horses and dragons, the male is the child-bearer. however, unlike sea horses, male sea dragons have a spongy brood patch on the underside of the tail where females deposit their pink eggs during mating. The eggs are fertilized during this. The males carry the fertilized eggs for 4-6 weeks before they hatch.

These amazing sea creatures survive on small crustaceans such as sea lice and mysids.

Unfortunately, these small but fascinating creatures were a massive hit in the '90s, this caused many divers to catch them and keep them as pets or even sell them. this hurt their numbers a lot. And they are now listed as "near threatened".