GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE e.Africa - French Polynesia - Hawai‘i

COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; Marine, near-shore

KEY FEATURES: Gp.8. Massive (to several metres diameter) or encrusting, often projecting into domes or columns. Live colour is olive green, chartreuse green, brown or blue. This species differs by having deeply excavated calices (1.5-2.0mm diameter), clearly polygonal with low walls, thin septa, and pali are absent. Porites "general" has closely-spaced ±polygonal calices, 0.7-1.5mm diameter, with conspicuous porous walls of rods and flakes, 12 porous lattice-like septa, some septa having an inner-spine (=pali), and the columella is pinnacle-like. This species has calices 1.5-2.0mm, clearly polygonal with low walls; the septa are thick and pali are absent.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Indistinguishable from other massive Porites, especially Porites lobata, except by expert comparative studies.