See text Holaxonia is a suborder of soft corals, a member of the phylum Cnidaria.

These soft corals are colonial, sessile organisms and are generally tree-like in structure.

They do not have a hard skeleton composed of calcium carbonate but have a firm but pliable, central axial skeleton composed of a fibrous protein called gorgonin embedded in a tissue matrix, the coenenchyme.

Members of this suborder are characterized by having an unspiculated axis and often a soft, chambered central core.

[2] The polyps have eight-fold symmetry and in many species, especially in the families Gorgoniidae and Plexauridae, contain symbiotic photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae.