The name is derived from the Greek "akron" meaning "summit" and refers to the presence of a corallite at the tip of each branch of coral.

Their colours vary between browns, whites, pinks, blues, yellows, greens and purple, depending not only on species but also on the growing conditions.

Identification is difficult and requires close examination of the corallites and a biochemical and genetic analysis.

[4] There is a corallite at the tip of each branch and, with the exception of Astreopora, these are small with up to twelve septa in two cycles.

They are mostly broadcast-spawners and some species have been involved in annual synchronous mass-spawning events on the Great Barrier Reef and in Japanese and Indonesian waters.