Acropora hyacinthus
Dana, 1846
Colonies in the western Indian Ocean are distinctive and all records are refered to this species with doubt.
Description: Colonies are wide flat plates and tables or tiered aggregations of small plates. Branches are thin and finely structured except where exposed to wave action, when they become closely fused. Branchlets are fine and upward projecting. Axial corallites are distinct but not exsert. Radial corallites are cup-shaped and form rosettes.
Color: Uniform cream, brown, grey or green with or without blue (which may photograph pink) growing margins.
Habitat: Upper reef slopes and outer reef flats.
Abundance: One of the most abundant corals of exposed outer reef slopes of much of the western Pacific.
Similar Species: See Acropora cytherea, A. spicifera and A. tanegashimensis.
Taxonomic note: This species is divisible into several smaller semi-distinct taxonomic units. Source reference: Veron (2000). Taxonomic references: Veron and Wallace (1984), Wallace (1999). Identification guides: Veron (1986), Nishihira and Veron (1995).
Tiers of overlapping plates overgrowing Acropora florida. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Charlie Veron
Edge of a plate in shallow water. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Valerie Taylor
A plate of loosely interlinked branches growing in a sheltered environment. Caroline Islands, Micronesia Photograph: Pat Colin
Branchlet tips. Calamian Islands, Philippines Photograph: Charlie Veron
Plates are usually solid towards the centre of large colonies. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Mary Stafford-Smith
Skeletal detail. Axial and radial corallites.
Showing the rosette of radial corallites around each axial corallite. Ryukyu Islands, Japan Photograph: Charlie Veron