Tabling acropora
Acropora cytherea
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207095, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Tabling acropora
- Scientific
- Acropora cytherea
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 3 to 25 m
- IUCN status
- EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A large table coral with thin, wide plates that rise on a short stalk and spread flat, sometimes more than 2 m across. Fine, short branchlets crowd the upper surface, which gives the table a soft, velvety outline. Colonies are cream, brown or pale blue-grey and grow on upper reef slopes, reef edges and lagoon patch reefs. Big tables like these shade the reef below and shelter many fish, but they were among the corals hit hardest by mass bleaching.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=14, QM); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=4); 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-cytherea.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207095
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Acropora_cytherea.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.