[2] The species has been named faulkneri by the American paleontologist John West Wells in 1982 in honor of Douglas Faulkner, who collected and illustrated in color the specimen used for the description.

This species is mainly present in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, in Australian water and from the Philippines to the Galapagos Islands.

[3][4] These large-polyp stony corals usually occurs in areas with a strong water flow and a high nutrient content, not necessarily related to the reef, at depths of 3 to 5 m.[5] Tubastraea faulkneri is an encrusting coral that can become massive and strongly convex.

The corallites of this species are covered with a porous tissue (coenosteum) with a vermicular appearance.

Unlike many tropical corals, they are azooxanthellate or non-photosynthetic, meaning that they do not live in symbiosis with zooxanthellae in their tissues, allowing them to grow in complete darkness as long as they can capture enough food.