Its form varies according to its habitat and is more open and branched in calm positions and more compact on the upper parts of reefs where water movement is greater.

Its wide range extends from East Africa and the Red Sea to Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Hawaii, Easter Island, and the western coast of Central America.

[1] When colonies are broken apart, chunks can become lodged on the seabed and grow into new individuals, a form of asexual reproduction by fragmentation.

It is a simultaneous hermaphrodite, and eggs and sperm are retained inside the coral and batches of planular larvae are released into the sea around the time of the new moon.

The density of the dinoflagellates varies depending on seasonal changes in water temperature, light levels, and dissolved nitrate concentration.

It is a dynamic process and in extreme environmental conditions results in the complete expulsion of the algae and the bleaching of the coral.