Colonies are yellow to green and are composed of one-directional plates, sometimes forming in different levels (mostly horizontal). Corallites are widely spaced, thick walled, immersed and cone-shaped. The corallites average 2.5 millimeters in diameter.

Listed as vulnerable (A4c) according to the IUCN Red list. Although locally common in parts of the Indo-Pacific, the species has been affected by bleaching, disease and habitat loss. By losing 36% of its habitat in 3 generations (30 years) it qualifies as vulnerable.

This species can be found in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the southwest and northwest Indian Ocean, Arabian/Iranian Gulf, the central Indian Ocean, the central Indo-Pacific, tropical and sub-tropical Australia, southern Japan and the South China Sea, the oceanic West Pacific, and the Central Pacific. It is found on fringing reefs and turbid water, in a depth range of 2-15 meters.

Members of the class Anthozoa can be either gonochoric or hermaphroditic. A zygote develops into a planktonic planula larva. Metamorphosis begins with early morphogenesis of tentacles, septa and pharynx before larval settlement on the aboral end.