Helioporacea is an order of the subclass Octocorallia that forms massive lobed crystalline calcareous skeletons in colonial corals.

[5] The blue coral (Heliopora coerulea), the only extant species in the family Helioporidae, is most common in shallow water of the tropical Pacific[6] and Indo-Pacific reefs.

[7] It has no spicules, and is the only octocoral known to produce a massive skeleton formed of fibrocrystalline aragonite fused into lamellae, similar to that of the Scleractinia (stony corals).

The surface of blue coral and similar species appears smooth and the color in life is a distinctive grey-brown with white tips.

[8] The blue color of the skeleton (which is covered with a layer of brown polyps) is caused by iron salts.