Puako, Hawai'i, 25 feet

Honaunau, Hawai'i, 50 feet

Branched form, Kapoho tidepool, Hawai'i, 4 feet

Puako, Hawai'i, 25 feet

cropped

cropped

Hale'iwa Trench, O'ahu, 50 feet

Kailua Bay, Hawai'i, 15 feet

Puako, Hawai'i, 20 feet

Fairly common as encrusting sheets on shaded vertical surfaces.  Distinctive sandpaper-like granules cover the entire surface.  Calices are located in meandering valleys, brown, olive or gray.  Rarely forms small knobby heads like that of Stellar Coral.  Red Sea to Japan, Hawai'i, and French Polynesia.

All coral skeletons illustrated are from scientific collections taken prior to 1998.