"Pavona forms foliaceous, encrusting or massive colonies. Foliaceous types have fronds that are entire and flat or twisted and fused together. In general, calices are on both sides of the vertically growing fronds or plates but on the upper face only of horizontal folia. Most colonies are pale brown. Some show shades of gray, pink, purple, green or yellow, and often the tops of the collines are paler or white. In some cases the calices are a different color from the rest of the coral. Tiny tentacles less than a millimeter in length are sometimes extended during the day. Calices are round, polygonal or oval. In many species hillocks called collines are present between the calices. These are usually acute and may be elongate. Some enclose a single calice, but most surround a short series, giving a complicated system of ridges and grooves. In Pavona clavus there are low walls between the calices. These are usually separated, each with its own wall. Calice diameter is usually between 2 and 3 mm. Septa are visible as fine lines running from one calice center to the next, continuing uninterrupted over walls and collines. Often they form characteristic star-shapes patterns over the surface of the corallum. They are extremely fine, and the coral is smooth to the touch. Pavona is a fairly common coral that is found in most reef habitats. Some of the massive colonies are large, and the foliaceous ones may form extensive tracts." (Dr. Elizabeth M. Wood, 1984).
Pavona is a genus of colonial stony corals in the family Agariciidae. These corals are found in shallow waters in the Indo-Pacific region.
Corals in this genus have a range of different forms including those that are massive, meandering, columnar, leaf-like, and plate-like. A single species may vary in form according to the current, wave action, lighting conditions, and depth of its location. Members of the genus are distinguished from other corals by having no walls to the corallites, but having clearly delineated septocostae that connect each corallite to its neighbours, giving a flower-like pattern on the surface of the coral. The corallites themselves are shallow depressions with central columella and may be separated by ridges. The polyps, with the exception of Pavona explanulata, are only extended at night. The foliose and plate-like forms tend to be two-sided.[1][2] If they do not get enough nutrients or “food” from photosynthesis they switch to the autotrophic mode, and obtain some of their nutrition from their symbiotic algae. They can also absorb nutrients from uptaking dissolved organics from the water and even using carbon dioxide to turn it in organic carbon sources they can feed on.[3]
The World Register of Marine Species recognises these species:[1]
Pavona is a genus of colonial stony corals in the family Agariciidae. These corals are found in shallow waters in the Indo-Pacific region.
