Acropora coral (no English common name)
Acropora hemprichii
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 288207, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Acropora coral (no English common name)
- Scientific
- Acropora hemprichii
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 15 to 25 m
- IUCN status
- EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A large branching Acropora with thick, irregular branches that form open thickets. It is found in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Colonies are usually brown, cream or blue-grey and grow on reef slopes and in lagoons. Separating it from similar branching Acropora needs a close look at the branches and cups.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=2); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=1); 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-hemprichii.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=288207
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Coral_(Acropora_hemprichii),_Ras_Katy,_Sharm_el-Sheij,_Egip
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.