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| hard corals text index | photo index |
| Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Zoantharia/Hexacorallia > Order Scleractinia > Family Agariciidae |
| Lettuce
coral Pavona sp.* Family Agariciidae updated Oct 11 Where seen? This leafy lettuce-like hard coral is sometimes seen on some of our Southern shores. Features: Colonies may be small (10-15cm), generally forming a rounded shape with a compact leafy structure that gives them their common name. Some colonies may be much larger (30-40cm) with broader flat blades forming more open shapes. The corallites are found in shallow depressions. sometimes separated by ridges that result in a distrinctive, fine, intricate pattern of short lines on the surface of the coral. The skeleton is not covered in thick tissue. The tiny polyps appear on both sides of the leaf-like blades. The tentacles are spindly and pointed. When extended at night, the tentacles give the colony a prickly appearance. Long sweeper tentacles may be produced. Colours seen include brown, blue sometimes with tinges of other colours. Living among lettuce: The leafy structures are perfect hiding places for fishes. Fan worms and tiny clams are sometimes also seen living among the 'leaves'. Status and threats: The IUCN global listing for the species recorded for Singapore are: Pavona cactus and Pavona decussata as Vulnerable. |
 Raffles Lighthouse, Jul 06  |
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Lettuce corals on Singapore shores
 Pulau Hantu, Apr 06 |
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 Sisters Island, Jul 04 |
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 Pulau Hantu, Apr 06 |
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more photos of lettuce corals on Singapore shores
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7
*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.
| Pavona
species recorded for Singapore from Danwei Huang, Karenne P. P. Tun, L. M Chou and Peter A. Todd. 30 Dec 2009. An inventory of zooxanthellate sclerectinian corals in Singapore including 33 new records **the species found on many shores in Danwei's paper. *Groups based on in Veron, Jen. 2000. Corals of the World. in red are those listed as threatened on the IUCN global list.
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Links
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Australian Institute of Marine Science, Australia. 3 volumes.
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