Lace coral
Pocillopora damicornis
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 206953, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Lace coral
- Scientific
- Pocillopora damicornis
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 0 to 26 m
- IUCN status
- EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A lace coral: a small, bushy Pocillopora with thin, branching branches covered in tiny wart-like lumps. Colonies are often brown, cream or pink and grow on reef flats, in lagoons and on shallow slopes. It is one of the most studied corals in the world. Recent genetic work has split it into several look-alike species, so field identifications are approximate.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=1); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=18); 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/Pocillopora-damicornis.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=206953
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Pocillopora_damicornis_Landaagiraavaru.JPG
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.