Common mushroom coral
Fungia fungites
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207350, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Common mushroom coral
- Scientific
- Fungia fungites
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 3 to 20 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2022CITES Appendix II
Description
The common mushroom coral: a single large polyp with a round to slightly oval, flat skeleton marked by fine radiating ridges, usually 10 to 25 cm across. It lies loose on the reef, on rubble or on sand, and is brown, green, cream or purple. Young corals start life attached to the reef on a stalk and later break free. It is one of the most familiar free-living corals in the Maldives.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=10); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=40); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013), IndOBIS).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Fungia-fungites.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207350
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Fungiafungites.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.