Cactus Coral
Pavona cactus
Pavona cactus, the cactus coral, potato chip coral or leaf coral, is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Agariciidae. This coral is found in shallow waters on reefs and in lagoons in tropical parts of the Indo-Pacific region.
From the article Pavona cactus on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Colonies of this species have vertical, irregular, two-sided fronds about 5 cm (2 in) tall and not more than 5 mm (0.2 in) thick. The corallites housing the polyps are very shallow and form widely separated rows parallel to the margins of the fronds. The bases of these fronds may be dead while the upper parts are still alive supported by the skeletal tissue below. The fronds may be clustered together in a supercolony formed from one or more individual colonies and extending for several metres (yards) across the seabed. This is a zooxanthellate species of coral, with symbiotic microscopic algae living in its tissues. It is an olive green or a brownish colour.
Range & habitat
Pavona cactus is found in the tropical Indo-Pacific, its range extending from the Red Sea and East African coast to Japan, Tahiti and Australia. It is found in turbid but calm waters, on upper reef slopes and in shallow lagoons at depths down to 40 metres (130 ft).
Wikipedia: “Distribution”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Pavona cactus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 108971.