Scientific Name Dendrophyllia sp.
Common Name "Tree Coral"
and
Scientific Name Tubastrea sp.
Common Name "Cave Coral"
Color Red to deep purple skeletons with expanded polyps in various colors of yellow, red green or black.
Plate 72. Tree Coral (Dendrophyllia sp.) with polyps expanded and withdrawn.
Plate 73. Cave Coral (Tubastrea sp.) with tentacles withdrawn.
Distinguishing Characteristics
These types of coral do not contain symbiotic
zooxanthellae in their tissues, and their red to deep purple appearance is solely due to their own pigments. Not requiring light for food energy, these corals populate the roofs and walls of caves or under ledges where other hard corals will not survive. They obtain their energy solely by feeding on zooplankton, and the sight of their large, colorful polyps and tentacles expanded for feeding can be spectacular. They grow as either solitary or small branching forms and therefore are not reef-forming, and their skeletons are light and porous. Members of these and related groups can occur in very deep and cold water throughout the world, unlike the reef-forming corals which are primarily restricted to the tropics in warm sunlit water.
Species of Dendrophyllia are often differentiated from Tubastrea in the field on the basis of the smaller size of their calyces and by a greater tendency for branching and forming arborescent colonies. However, these are unreliable charactersistics for accurate identification. since some Dendrophyllia grow as small clumps similar to Tubastrea. Also, both types may occur in a variety of colors. although Tubastrea is inaccurately considered to be primarily red. The two genera can be differentiated from the structure of the septa of their cleaned skeletons. In Dendrophyllia,the calyces follow the Pourtales Plan wherein the septa fuse in groups of three together at the center of the calyx. Tubastrea conversely shows no central fusion of the septa.
Family Dendrophylliidae
Scientific Name Turbinaria mesenterina
Common Name "Vase Coral"
Color Pale to yellowish brown or greenish brown.
Plate 69. Vase Coral (Turbinaria mesenterina)
Distinguishing Characteristics
Small colonies of this distinctive species look like small plates on stalks which are attached to the substratum. As a colony grows it becomes more and more vase-like, with a thin lip around a central depression. The lip of the vase can be quite convoluted and the overall structure is often very beautiful. Colonies can form large vases standing up to 1 m above the substratum, to which they are always firmly attached to resist wave turbulence. Polyps on the interior of the vase are uniformly about 2 mm in diameter and are evenly spaced on the coral's surface.
Habitat
The Vase Coral is usually found at. the base or lower sections of slopes and in relatively turbid water subject to sedimentation. Because of its high density and firm attachment to the substratum, it is often seen in wave exposed, turbid areas where other species are mostly excluded .
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