dcsimg

Biology

provided by World Register of Marine Species
zooxanthellate

Reference

van der Land, J. (ed). (2008). UNESCO-IOC Register of Marine Organisms (URMO).

license
cc-by-4.0
copyright
WoRMS Editorial Board
contributor
Jacob van der Land [email]

Description

provided by World Register of Marine Species
Colonies range from thick, foliaceous or encrusting coralla, to low, submassive forms, rarely larger than 20 cm diameter. This is a very polymorphic species, showing wide, habitat-related skeletal variations. Budding is intratentacular. Calices range from 3 to 7 mm across, and may be largely monocentric or may run in short meandroid series. Calice depth ranges equally greatly, from 2 to 5 mm. Walls are thick. Septa are thick, with granular edges; colonies from very turbid locations may be particularly granular, almost furry in appearance, with smaller calices. This is a very common species. It is particularly common on deeper parts of reef slopes where it can be found to at least 50 m deep. It is also common in turbid water of back reef slopes where it takes on a more contorted shape, and it is one of the few species commonly found in holes on reef flats and in close proximity to mangroves, and even is abundant in the areas of cold upwelling water (Sheppard, 1998). Often forms circular, encrusting, slightly mounded, plate-like colonies. The calices (3-7 mm) are variable in form, being circular to oval or long and meandering, and may be aligned in shallow, concentric valleys which are roughly parallel to the margin of the colony. Between the corallites, fine septo-costal connections overly this pattern. Colour: usually pale brown or greenish. Habitat: diverse, on reef flats to deeper slopes (Richmond, 1997). Tropical Indo-Pacific in Kalk (1958).

Reference

Lemmens, J. W. T. J. (1993). Reef-building corals (Cnidaria: Scleractinia) from the Watamu Marine National Reserve, Kenya; an annotated species list. Zoologische mededelingen. 67: 453-465.

license
cc-by-4.0
copyright
WoRMS Editorial Board
contributor
Edward Vanden Berghe [email]