In its specific name Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg honoured his late partner the Prussian naturalist Wilhelm Hemprich; they were among the first to study the marine life of the Red Sea.

Lobophyllia hemprichii is a colonial species of coral that may form hemispherical or flattened mounds up to 5 m (16 ft) in diameter.

The thick, fleshy polyps can retract back into the corallite cups in which they sit or extend their tentacles to feed.

Its range extends from the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the east coast of Africa through the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal to Japan, Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia.

Although susceptible to bleaching and to other damage caused to corals by a rise in sea temperature and ocean acidification, it is thought to be more resilient than many other species because of its large population size and wide genetic variability.