Thorny staghorn coral
Acropora echinata
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207069, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Thorny staghorn coral
- Scientific
- Acropora echinata
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 4 to 25 m
- IUCN status
- EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A bottlebrush Acropora: each main branch is covered by many short, thin side branchlets, so it looks like a bottlebrush. Colonies form loose thickets, usually pale brown, cream or blue-tinged. It grows in calm water on deeper slopes and in lagoons.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=8, QM); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=1); literature records via OBIS (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-echinata.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207069
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Acropora_echinata_Maldives.JPG
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.