Acropora coral (no English common name)
Acropora divaricata
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207106, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Acropora coral (no English common name)
- Scientific
- Acropora divaricata
- 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
An Acropora that forms clumps or plates of branches spreading out at wide angles, often in tiers. Colonies are usually brown, grey or greenish and grow on reef slopes and in lagoons. It is told apart from similar species by the shape and arrangement of its branchlets and cups, which needs a close look.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=16, QM); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=2); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013)); 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-divaricata.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207106
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Acropora_divaricata_246373591.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.