Now, this is a question I must ask my most serious coral loving colleagues. How to tell the difference between all thesePoritescorals?
*Looking to solve the mystery scroll to the bottom for Mystery corals, first is a description of four Porites species.
The finger coral is a quintessential Caribbean species, which I’ve found growing on nearly every reef. There are two common branching speciesPorites porites, andporites furcata，鲜为人知的分支物种波利特人.There is even a plating speciesPorites astreoideswhich you can find on all Caribbean dives.
The most elusive of them all is an encrusting speciesPorites branneri,which is where things start getting weird.
Porites porites
The classic coloration ofPorites poritesis grey to brown, and branches have a cylindrical shape tapering to a slightly pointed tip. The polyps ofPorites porites,theCaribbean Finger Coral, are often long a shaggy, obscuring the shape of the branch. The branches grow close together making small bushy clusters. In most habitats, the branches never get much longer than 5cm. However, colonies growing on deeper reefs tend to be longer and more spread apart.
porites furcata
It’s easy to distinguish between the second form of Porites finger coral. TheBranching Finger Coral,porites furcataas this coral has thinner branches with a more uniform branch size and rounded bulbous branch tips. The classic color is grey, brown going to creamy yellow. The polyps ofP. furcataare short and furry, making it easier to see the branch shape. The branches are often more spread apart, however, this can also depend on habitat, including depth, light and flow conditions.
As a rule of thumb,Porites poriteswill always have more pointed tips, compact branches, and long polyps.porites furcatahas round bulbous tips, spread out branches with short furry polyps.
波利特人
波利特人has short branches and what distinguishes this coral is the bright color of the polyps, which contrast with the coral tissue. The colonies are small and quite rare to find at least where I have been diving. The branches are thin and the common name for this corals is theThin Finger Coral.The few places I can say I’ve positively spotted this coral was on a shallow Palmata zone habitat in Tela Honduras, and a 12-15m reef dive in Yucatan Mexico.
Porites branneri
Porites branneriis where things start to get weird. The common name for this coral is theBlue Crust Coral, and typically we can distinguish this coral by the bright blue color, and encrusting form. I’ve come across a handful of corals in Cozumel and Cuba which fit the blue description ofPorites branneri,although they were identified to me asPorites porites,and most where branching not encrusting.
The second set of colonies I found were in Cuba and identifies asPorites branneribut to me have characteristics ofporites furcataonly with a bright blue color.
The first time I spotted this coral was in Cozumel and it was identified asPorites porites.增长形式似乎不匹配，尽管明亮的蓝色使我相信这是蓝色的外壳branneri.Without looking at the corallite structure of the skeleton, a true positive identification of this species is beyond my coral spotting knowledge.
The second time I found what I thought wasPoritesbranneriwas pointed out and identified as such by the guides in Cuba Gardens of the Queen. The coral fit the bright color, but looking at growth forms it looks just like the branching finger coralporites furcata。Perhaps I’m the only one who is kept awake at night trying to figure this out…
Mission To Spot Caribbean Corals – Solve The Mystery!
珊瑚s are influenced by their position on the reef, and locally there could be different color morphs of the same species which are absent anywhere else. This is one of the reasons coral identification starts to get tricky.
Last year on my mission to documentCaribbean corals,I quickly learned there are very limited resources available when it comes to identifying weird corals that don’t fit the described mold. The bestobscure Caribbean coral Identification guideI’ve found is on the Carmabi Research Institution website, but I am still left with so many questions.
Since starting my guide last year, I have been in contact with different coral experts all in their respected coral genus fields, and slowly I’ve been building a photo catalog of Caribbean corals representing different colors, different growth forms and hard to identify morphologies of each species. But there are still several mystery corals living in my Lightroom catalog, begging to be identified.
在仔细看看这些珊瑚, I had to ask myself? How many colors are there ofPorites porites, could this mystery yellow coral just be aporites furcatewith a sunny disposition? Have I finally found the elusive blue crustPorites branneri, or is this just a bold bluefurcata. These corals fit the description of one species in some way or another, but break the mold in others.
It wouldn’t surprise me to find out these are all different colors of the classic branchingporites furcata, or a form ofPorites porites,but as I mentioned before, this is a question I must ask my most serious Caribbean coral loving colleagues. The challenge is yours… Can you help me identify these mystery corals? Do you agree they could beporites furcata, and have I finally crossed one of my last remaining corals off the listPorites branneri.
The striking blue coral was pointed out to me inCozumel, by Dr. German Mendez as being aPorites porites, but is it aPorites branneri?? I know we’re getting into the coral taxonomy weeds here but I am dying to find out the answer.
The second set of branching blue corals was from Cuba, Gardens of the Queen and was pointed out asPorites branneri, but the branching form looks just likeporites furcata… and doesn’t fit the encrusting coral description… This one is driving me crazy to figure out.
The Biggest Mystery
I found this branching yellow coral while diving in Cuba, Gardens of the Queen and this one really has me scratching my head. After speaking to a few other coral lovers about the mysterious branching yellow coral in Cuba they too had the same question. What is this yellow coral, could it be a hybrid species?
Is it just a yellowporites furcata? The local divemaster had his own theory that it could be a branchingPorites astreoides,但老实说，是时候将其送给珊瑚识别大师了。这种珊瑚是专门在礁石顶部发现的，我发现它仅在7-9m深的少数几个地点。
我希望这篇文章能引起加勒比海的注意Poritesexpert and help me solve this coral conundrum once and for all!
