Characters: Colonies are massive, hemispherical, flat or columnar, and commonly over one metre across. Corallites are four to six sided. Long and short septa clearly alternate and are thin and straight with well developed thin paliform lobes.
Colour: Uniform cream or pale brown, occasionally brown, pink or green.
Similar Species: Goniastrea edwardsi, which has thicker walls and septa and more irregular corallites. See also G. minuta.
Habitat: Sometimes a dominant species of intertidal habitats.
Abundance: Common.
Taxonomic Note: The type species of Goniastrea Milne Edwards and Haime, 1848.
Taxonomic References: Wijsman-Best (1972); Veron, Pichon and Wijsman-Best (1977);
Identification Guides: Veron (1986a); Sheppard and Sheppard (1991); Nishihira and Veron (1995); Pillay, Terashima, Venkatasami et al. (2002); Pichon, Benzoni, Chaineau et al. (2010); Turak and DeVantier (2011b);
