Characters: Colonies consist of flat, highly fused basal plates. Colonies are sometimes single solid plates covered with short tapered branchlets and incipient axial corallites. Otherwise they have short upright branchlets which are usually widely spaced. Axial corallites are indistinct from radial corallites. Radial corallites have thick lips.
Colour: Dark brown or green, usually with pale plate margins.
Similar Species: Acropora solitaryensis, which only rarely consists of solid basal plates without branchlets and has sharp edged radial corallites. See also A. glauca and A. retusa, both of which have greater development of branchlets. Colonies consisting of flat plates resemble A. efflorescens of the western Pacific.
Habitat: Upper reef slopes and tidal pools.
Abundance: Common.
Taxonomic Note: Considered by Wallace (1999) to be 'unresolved'. However, this is a discrete species both in the field and in collections.
Taxonomic References: Riegl (1995a); Veron (2000a);
Identification Guides: Pillay, Terashima, Venkatasami et al. (2002);
