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| hard corals text index | photo index |
| Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Zoantharia/Hexacorallia > Order Scleractinia > Family Dendrophyllidae > Turbinaria sp. |
| Flowery
disk coral Turbinaria peltata Family Dendrophylliidae updated Nov 11 Where seen? This hard coral that forms thick plates with large fat polyps is commonly seen on many of our shores. It is among the commonly encountered hard coral on many of our shores. Features: Colonies up to 20-50cm. Generally plate-like, thick (about 1cm). With the large polyps expanded, the colony looks like a flower-studded disk. Colony may be flat and disk-shaped, sometimes folded thus resembling a cabbage, or with columns growing from the centre. Corallites small (average 0.6cm), crowded at the edges but spaced apart elsewhere with a smooth surface in between them. When the tissue is completely retracted, the corallite looks like a shallow cup. The polyps are large (1-1.5cm in diameter), fleshy with a thick body column, many opaque long tentacles, and are usually colourful. Because the polyps are usually widely spaced apart, they often look like small anemones with a distinctive ring of tentacles surrounding a central mouth. Unlike other Turbinaria species, the polyps are often expanded even during the day. Generally quite colourful, often with several colours displayed on one colony. For example, the polyps may be brightly coloured against a contrasting duller background plate colour. Colours seen include various shades and combinations of orange, pink, brown, yellow, green, blue and purple. |
 Cyrene Reef, Jun 08  |
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Flowery disk corals on Singapore shores
 Chek Jawa, May 05 |
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 Tuas, Apr 05 |
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 Cyrene Reef, Jul 11 |
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more photos of flowery disk corals on Singapore shores
northern shores part 1 | part 2
southern shores part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7| part 8
*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.
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