No photo available
Feather coral
Polyphyllia talpina
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 211418, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Feather coral
- Scientific
- Polyphyllia talpina
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 0 to 40 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2022CITES Appendix II
Description
A feather coral: a large, free-living mushroom coral with a long, slipper-shaped skeleton covered in many short tentacles that are often extended by day, giving it a soft, furry look. Colonies are usually brown, green or grey and lie loose on reef slopes, sand and rubble.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=1); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=3); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013), IndOBIS).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Polyphyllia-talpina.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=211418
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Polyphyllia_talpina,_acuario.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.