Acropora palifera
Lamarck, 1816
Description: Colonies are encrusting plates or thick ridges, columns or branches. Branches are usually upright, but are commonly horizontal or irregular in shape, depending on exposure to wave action. There are usually no axial corallites. Corallites are smooth, rounded and exsert. The coenosteum is composed of fine spinules with elaborated tips.
Color: Pale cream or brown.
Habitat: Occurs in all reef environments.
Abundance: The most abundant coral of the northern Great Barrier Reef where it is the dominant species of most exposed outer reef slopes. Usually less dominant elsewhere in Australia and most other countries.
Similar Species: Acropora cuneata, which has smaller, flatter branches and finer, more rounded, less elongate corallites. These species are difficult to distinguish unless they occur together. See also A. elizabethensis.
Source reference: Veron (2000). Taxonomic references: Veron and Wallace (1984), Wallace (1999). Identification guides: Veron (1986), Nishihira and Veron (1995).
On reef slope exposed to moderate wave action forming thick ridges and branches. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Ed Lovell
On an upper reef slope exposed to very strong wave action forming ridges parallel to the direction of water movement. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Charlie Veron
Contorted flattened branches in shallow water exposed to turbulence. Papua New Guinea Photograph: Charlie Veron
Forming parallel ridges on an exposed outer reef flat. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Valerie Taylor
On a lower slope, forming columnar branches. Papua New Guinea Photograph: Charlie Veron
Skeletal detail. Radial corallites on a flat surface.
Encrusting plates on an outer reef flat. Madagascar Photograph: Charlie Veron