ID

The first thing to understand is that common names may not even resemble the scientific name, for instance who would guess that the simple little Mushroom could be confused with the potentially humongous coral commonly known as a Toadstool.

Mushrooms are scientifically Actinodiscus while the Mushroom, Toadstool or even Umbrella Leather Coral is a Sarcophyton. Adding to the confusion, I pluralize the Actinodiscus Coral as Mushrooms, with an "s" yet because of it's typical growth as a single individual I call the Sarcophyton "a" Mushroom Leather Coral.

 

And sometimes the coral a hobbyist calls a Mushroom may actually be in the Ricordia family.

 

We often use the name Star Polyps for two different coral familyies, Clavularia and Briarium. (Briarium is also known as Encrusting Gorgonia ...Now this is amazing, as I just now searched the name Clavularia, in the thumbnail pic as one of the top hits, the Glove or Clove polyps are sitting right next to the Star Polyps! Amazing confusion! ) Going back to the differences Burt noted in the way his two Anthelia coral grow, in each of the "Star Polyp" families are some that grow a solid mat and some that grow tube runners between the individual polyps.

 

So....When it comes to coral names, I wouldn't get all worked up about it.