Staghorn Coral

Staghorn coral is a branching, stony coral in the order Scleractinia, characterized by thick, upright branches that can grow more than two meters tall and resemble the antlers of a stag. It grows in various parts of a reef but is most common in shallow fore and back reefs and patch reefs, where water depths rarely exceed twenty meters, and it can grow very fast, adding up to five centimeters of new skeleton for every centimeter of existing skeleton each year, making it one of the fastest growing fringe coral species in the western Atlantic. Because of this rapid growth, staghorn coral is one of the most important reef building corals, serving as a nursery for juvenile fish, a buffer against erosion and storms, and a center of biodiversity in the western Atlantic.