Stylophora pistillata has broad, blunt-ended branches, and colonies become thicker and more submassive as they grow.

The corallites (stony cups from which the polyps emerge) are conical or hooded and are sunk beneath the general surface.

Its range extends from Madagascar, East Africa, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, through the Indian Ocean to northern Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Japan and many island groups in the western and central Pacific Ocean.

It is a reef-building species and favours exposed habitats with strong water movement.

However, boring clams bring fresh, oxygenated water into the colony which benefits the coral.