The corallite walls usually consist of four complete whorls of septa and do not project appreciably from the surface of the coral.

[3][4] The golfball coral is found in the tropical Atlantic Ocean at depths down to 30 metres (98 ft) with its range extending from the west coast of equatorial Africa to South America, the Caribbean Sea and the southern United States.

This is because it is widespread and common and a loss of habitat from coral reef destruction is unlikely to impact it significantly.

[1] Where degraded reefs have abundant macroalgae, it has been shown experimentally that coral larvae will settle in as great quantities on the seaweed as it will on the rubble substrate.

Researchers showed that larvae of Favia fragum settled on Halimeda opuntia, an ephemeral alga that is unsuitable for post-settlement survival, and this may have significant consequences for the recruitment of corals on degraded reefs.