It differs from Pocillopora damicornis in having broader, somewhat flattened, club-tipped branches and by the fact that its verrucae are more evenly sized and spaced.

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.

[4] However, at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, this species has been shown to fertilise the eggs internally and brood the developing planula larvae.

These include pufferfishes, parrotfishes and filefishes which feed on the tips of the branches and hermit crabs which scrape the skeletal tissue.

Other animals feed on the soft tissues while leaving the skeleton intact including the butterflyfishes, the angelfishes and the damselfish, Stegastes acapulcoensis.

have several mutualistic symbionts including the crab, Trapezia sp., and certain snapping shrimps which protect it from attack by its major predator, the crown-of-thorns starfish.