Acropora willisae
Veron and Wallace, 1984
Records from the western Indian Ocean are doubtfully this species.
Description: Colonies are corymbose plates up to approximately one metre across, with short, uniform, evenly spaced, non-tapered branchlets bearing numerous elongate thin walled corallites. There is usually more than one axial corallite per branchlet. Radial corallites near branchlet tips are tubular and appressed.
Color: Grey, cream, blue (which may photograph pink) or brown.
Habitat: A wide range of environments from lower reef slopes to lagoons.
Abundance: Common in Western Australia, rarely common elsewhere.
Similar Species: Acropora desalwii. Acropora granulosa has long axial corallites and is not corymbose. See also A. parapharaonis.
Taxonomic note: Corals from the western Indian Ocean are attributed to this species with doubt. Source reference: Veron (2000). Taxonomic references: Veron and Wallace (1984), Wallace (1999). Identification guides: Veron (1986), Nishihira and Veron (1995).
Corallite detail. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Charlie Veron
Plate surface with tall axial corallites. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Mary Stafford-Smith
Side of a small colony. Banda Sea, Indonesia Photograph: Tim Werner
Plate surface. Great Barrier Reef, Australia Photograph: Mary Stafford-Smith
Skeletal detail. Axial and radial corallites.