Characters: Colonies usually consist of clumps of short knobby branches up to 40 millimetres thick with blunt ends. Corallites are crowded and immersed to conical, with hoods often facing different directions. They have small style-like columellae, six primary septa and rudimentary secondary septa. The coenosteum is covered by coarse spinules.
Colour: Uniform cream.
Similar Species: Stylophora pistillata, which forms thicker, larger branches on exposed reef flats and occurs in a wide variety of other environments.
Habitat: Found only in shallow water exposed to wave action.
Abundance: Uncommon except on the edge of reef flats exposed to wave action.
Taxonomic References: Scheer (1964); Scheer and Pillai (1983); Veron (2000a);
Identification Guides: Sheppard and Sheppard (1991);
