Acropora valida
Dana, 1846
This species shows wide geographic variation.
Description: Colonies have a wide range of forms from compact bushes to tables. They seldom exceed 0.5 metres across. Axial corallites are small. Radial corallites are usually a mixture of sizes and are strongly appressed and swollen, with small openings.
Color: Cream, brown or yellow, sometimes brown with purple branch tips and cream radial corallites, a colour commonly shared by A. secale and A. nana.
Habitat: A wide range of reef environments and rocky foreshores.
Abundance: Sometimes common.
Similar Species: Acropora nana and A. variabilis. Acropora cerealis and A. nasuta are similar but the strongly appressed radial corallites of A. valida are distinctive.
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), Coles (1996).
This species is common on intertidal reef flats where it may resemble Acropora nana. Scott Reef, Western Australia Photograph: Charlie Veron
On an upper reef slope exposed to wave action. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Charlie Veron
A colony in a partly protected habitat. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Ed Lovell
A colony in an exposed habitat. Ryukyu Islands, Japan PhotographCharlie Veron
Skeletal detail. Axial and radial corallites.