Catch Bowl Coral

Isopora palifera can be encrusting, or massive, form columnar branches or parallel ridges of blade-like branches. The shape adopted is much dependent on how much water movement there is at its site of growth; it is encrusting in a strong current or on the seaward side of a reef and is more branching in calm, still conditions. The branches are 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 in) in diameter and up to 20 cm (8 in) long. Each branch has several axial corallites up to 4 millimetres (0.16 in) in diameter. The radial corallites are cylindrical, large and close together or touching, and project from the branches by up to 5 millimetres (0.20 in). Each has a distinct, large irregularly shaped opening near the tip. The colour of this coral is greenish, creamy or pale brown. This colour comes from minute symbiotic dinoflagellates known as zooxanthellae which live within the tissues of the coral polyps.

Isopora palifera is found in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Its range extends from South Africa and Madagascar to East Africa, Aldabra and Chagos, India, China, Japan, Indonesia and Australia. It is the commonest species of coral in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef. It is a reef building coral and is found subtidally on reef flats, edges walls and slopes. Isopora palifera first appears in the fossil record in Papua New Guinea in the Pliocene.