Characters: Colonies usually have tall open branches which do not fuse. Upright branches have many nearly perpendicular sub-branches which have a third and sometimes a fourth generation of smaller branches. The size of sub-branches decreases in sequence from the base to the tips of main branches. Axial corallites are large and dome-shaped. Radial corallites are mostly immersed on lower branches, becoming uniform and tubular on upper branches. They are often of two sizes.
Colour: Brown or cream, sometimes with yellowish radial corallites.
Similar Species: Acropora samoensis, which has digitate branches. Acropora lovelli has thinner, more irregular branches (or without a third generation of sub-branches) and radial corallites which tend to be immersed or appressed.
Habitat: Shallow reef environments.
Abundance: Uncommon.
Taxonomic Note: This species forms part of a complex with Acropora samoensis and A. torresiana, and was placed in synonymy with Acropora samoensis by Wallace (1999) and Wallace, Done and Muir (2012). Skeletal details of these species are similar, but they are readily separated in situ, A. wallaceae forming distinctively thick, sprawling indeterminate branches. It may be noted that the holotype of the much more common A. samoensis is a stout, thickened corallum and sits at one end of the range of its morphological variability. The holotype resembles A. wallaceae more than the neat, digitate to corymbose form of A. samoensis which is more typical of this species. The three species in the species complex require further taxonomic study to clarify their boundaries.
Taxonomic References: Veron (1990a); Veron (2000a);
Identification Guides: Nishihira and Veron (1995); Turak and DeVantier (2011b);
