Table coral
Acropora clathrata
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207075, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Table coral
- Scientific
- Acropora clathrata
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 0 to 20 m
- IUCN status
- EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A table or plate coral whose thin, flat plates are made of fused horizontal branches, giving the surface an open, lattice-like look from above. The upper side has few upright branchlets. Plates are usually brown, grey-green or cream, often with paler growing edges, and grow on upper reef slopes and lagoon margins. Like other plate-forming Acropora, it is hard to tell from its relatives without a close look at the small cups.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=20, QM); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=9); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013), IndOBIS); SeaLifeBase Maldives checklist. Branching and table corals of this kind were among the worst hit by the 1998 and 2016 mass bleaching events in the Maldives.
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Acropora-clathrata.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207075
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Acropora_clathrata.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.