Finger coral
Acropora humilis
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207094, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Finger coral
- Scientific
- Acropora humilis
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 3 to 10 m
- IUCN status
- EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A finger coral: a sturdy Acropora with thick, blunt, finger-like branches, each topped by a large, obvious central cup. Colonies are often brown, cream, green or purple and grow on reef flats, reef crests and the upper reef slope, where waves are strong. It is one of the more recognisable Acropora, though several finger-forming relatives can look alike.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=9, 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-humilis.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207094
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Acropora_humilis_Maldives.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.