Characters: Colonies are submassive or encrusting. Corallites are small; some exsert, some immersed. Corallites are separated by papillae or tuberculae of about one corallite diameter.
Colour: Usually dull brown or green, but may be bright blue (which may photograph pink or purple). Tips of papillae are often distinctively coloured.
Similar Species: Montipora monasteriata, which has coenosteum tuberculae.
Habitat: Most reef environments.
Abundance: Common.
Taxonomic Note: Lamarck's description (p. 271) is unrecognisable, there is no type specimen and no type locality. Quoy and Gaimard (1833) describe a new species of the same name (p. 247). The type locality is Tonga but there appears to be no type specimen and the description is also unrecognisable.
Taxonomic References: Wells (1954); Veron and Wallace (1984);
Identification Guides: Veron (1986a); Sheppard and Sheppard (1991); Nishihira and Veron (1995); Pillay, Terashima, Venkatasami et al. (2002); Turak and DeVantier (2011b);
