Characters: Colonies have fine branches, compact or open, with acute tips. Corallites are moderately spaced, mostly oval. Septa are rudimentary, columellae are flat, dome-shaped. The coenosteum if covered with elaborated spinules.
Colour: Pale brown or greenish.
Similar Species: Pocillopora damicornis has thicker, less pointed and less compact branches.
Habitat: Upper reef slopes.
Abundance: Probably common.
Taxonomic Note: The type species of Pocillopora Lamarck, 1816. Usually separable from Pocillopora damicornis in situ but not in collections. See Vaughan (1918), Faustino (1927), Crossland (1952) for previous use of this name, and for discussion see 'Overview of coral taxonomy'.
Taxonomic References: Schmidt-Roach, Lundgren, Miller et al. (2013); Schmidt-Roach, Miller, Lundgren et al. (2014);
