Golf ball coral

About this species

Favia fragrum is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Mussidae. It is commonly known as the golfball coral and is found in tropical waters on either side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Favia fragum”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 56 records
February: 61 records
March: 79 records
April: 71 records
May: 103 records
June: 111 records
July: 260 records
August: 151 records
September: 427 records
October: 215 records
November: 127 records
December: 88 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–24 m · Deepest record: 225 m

0–10 m: 839 records
10–20 m: 480 records
20–30 m: 88 records
30–40 m: 48 records
40–50 m: 34 records
50–60 m: 9 records
60–70 m: 7 records
70–80 m: 6 records
80–90 m: 1 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–29 °C

22–24 °C: 3 records
24–26 °C: 0 records
26–28 °C: 332 records
28–30 °C: 415 records

Photos

(c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jay Brasher, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) marique, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Alex Doyle, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Thomas Irvine, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Golf ball coral, Golfball coral, Small star coral, Star coral, golf ball coral, golfball coral, Golfball Sponge, small star coral, star coral

Names in 3 more languages

German: Kleine Sternkoralle
Spanish: Coral bola de golf
French: Corail balle de golf

Other scientific names: Astraea coarctata, Astraea fragum, Astraea incerta, Astrea ananas, Favia ananas, Favia coarctata, Favia incerta, Favia whitfieldi, Madrepora fragrum, Madrepora fragum, Matrepora fragum, Parastrea fragum

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
1,551 open-data records from 1918 to 2023.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.