Maldives Marine Life

Marine life of Maldivian waters

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Thin cauliflower coral
No photo available
Photo: wildcarrot / iNaturalist, CC BY-SA 4.0 (view on iNaturalist)iNaturalist research-grade observation. Coral photo: species not verifiable from image.

Thin cauliflower coral

Pocillopora ligulata

Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 206959, checked 2026-10-31).

Possibly present in the Maldives

English
Thin cauliflower coral
Scientific
Pocillopora ligulata
Dhivehi
No recorded Dhivehi name
Group
Hard corals
Family
Pocilloporidae (cauliflower and bush corals)
Depth and habitat
Reef-associated, recorded from 0 to 75 m
IUCN status
EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Record in the Maldives
Possibly present

Description

A Pocillopora coral: a bushy branching coral whose branches are covered in small wart-like lumps (verrucae). Pocillopora are among the first corals to settle on damaged reefs, and often shelter coral crabs and shrimps among their branches. It is told apart from related species only by close examination of the skeleton.

In the Maldives

Recorded from the Maldives: literature records via OBIS (IndOBIS). Only one kind of evidence was found, so it is listed as possibly present.

Sources

Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.