''Seriatopora caliendrum'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

stony coral Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a ...

in the family

Pocilloporidae The Pocilloporidae are a family of stony corals in the order Scleractinia occurring in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Description Pocilloporids are colonial and most species are reef-building. They are very variable in size and shape, some being ...

. It forms a bushy clump and is commonly known as the green birdsnest coral. It is native to East Africa, the Red Sea and the western Indo-Pacific region, the type locality being the Red Sea. It grows in shallow water on reef slopes, particularly back-reef slopes, at depths down to about . The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the conservation status of this species as being "

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

Description

''Seriatopora caliendrum'' resembles ''

Seriatopora hystrix ''Seriatopora hystrix'' is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Pocilloporidae. It forms a branching clump and is commonly known as thin birdsnest coral. It grows in shallow water on fore-reef slopes or in sheltered lagoons, the type ...

'' but is less common. The branches are rather thicker and have blunter tips. The

corallite A corallite is the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits and into which it can retract. The cup is composed of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and is secreted by the polyp. Corallit ...

s are mostly hooded so that robust colonies resemble slender colonies of ''

Stylophora pistillata ''Stylophora pistillata'', commonly known as hood coral or smooth cauliflower coral, is a species of stony coral in the family Pocilloporidae. It is native to the Indo-Pacific region and is commonly used in scientific investigations. Description ...

'', however the corallites are in neat rows and have oval openings, which is not the case in ''S. pistillata''.

References

Pocilloporidae Corals described in 1834 Taxa named by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg {{scleractinia-stub