What you are seeing here is a very peculiar coral, both in color, pattern, and especially the fact that there are four corallites growing closely into a mini colony. This head-scratching and head-turning coral was collected in Australia by Ultra Corals Australia.
There is a fine line between a single polyp of Australian ‘Scolymia’, Homophyllia australis, and a colonial H. bowerbanki, formerly of Acanthastrea. This incredible specimen definitely blurs that distinction between H. australis and H. bowerbanki, although we somewhat hope that it’s the latter so this coral can generate more polyps/corallite, leading to the possibility of frags from this coral, and corals like it.
However, the larger size of the corallites could also support that this coral is actually a very rare four-headed ‘Scolie’, although it wouldn’t exactly be the first colonial Homophyllia australis. Whatever the case may be with this odd coral colony, this specimen underscores the fact that even if you’ve seen all the species, and all the colors and patterns they can throw out, there’s always an interesting coral around the corner to surprise even the most jaded coral connoisseurs.
