Pterogorgia citrina
Diagnosis
Colony Form:Small, bushy, with lateral branching, often in one or few planes, usually no more than 30 cm tall (maximum recorded 46 cm)
Axis:Black, cylindrical to slightly compressed.
Branches:Stiff; terminal branches in particular flattened, to 6 mm across and up to 6 cm long; sometimes with small terminal branches arising laterally in irregularly pinnate pattern.
Apertures:Individual slit-like calices along narrow edges of blades.
Mucus:None.
Color:Yellow to green; occasional orange to purple; margins purple or with purple calices; polyps white to tan.
Sclerites:Polyp armature: small, blunt rods with few weak bumps or thorns, to 0.08 mm long. Body wall: stout spindles with few to many large simple to complex tubercles, to 0.16 mm long; scaphoids (curved sclerites) stout, compact, often with blunt ends, to 0.16 mm long; ornamentation of crowded complex, sometimes fused tubercles.
Ecology
Habitat:Inshore, shallow areas from back reefs to patch reefs; 1-10 m depth.