Lesser valley coral
Platygyra daedalea
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207489, checked 2026-10-31). WoRMS status: unreplaced junior homonym (still the name in use).
- English
- Lesser valley coral
- Scientific
- Platygyra daedalea
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 3 to 30 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A brain coral with long, winding valleys and ridges, often with contrasting colours between the walls and the valley floors, such as brown with green or grey. Colonies form rounded or flattened mounds on reef flats, slopes and in lagoons. It is one of the most familiar brain corals on Maldivian reefs.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=13); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=3); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013), IndOBIS).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Platygyra-daedalea.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207489
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Platygyra_daedalea_Réunion.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.