The knobby, bush-shaped coral that builds most of the reef at Cabo Pulmo. In a 2011 park survey, cauliflower corals made up about two thirds of the live coral, and the same corals grow in smaller patches closer to Cabo San Lucas, such as at Bahía Chileno.
A small, bushy colony of upright, evenly spaced branches covered in bumps (verrucae) of uneven size, which give it its warty, cauliflower look. In wave-beaten spots the branches are thick and packed together; in calm water they grow thinner and more open. Live colonies are usually cream, brown or pink, sometimes blue, and the tiny polyps sit all over the bumps and branches. Dead, bleached skeletons keep a red-brown tinge on the main branches.
Cauliflower corals live across the Indo-Pacific and the tropical eastern Pacific, in shallow water from wave-exposed reef fronts to sheltered rocky shores. In the Gulf of California the most important place for them is Cabo Pulmo, a coral reef off the East Cape of Los Cabos. A 2011 CONANP survey found that two Pocillopora forms, P. meandrina (34%) and P. verrucosa (33%), together with the Panamic porites coral (about 11%) and the giant pavona (about 9%), made up more than 85% of the park's live coral. Coral surveys also recorded P. verrucosa at Bahía Chileno, in the tourist corridor between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. Like most reef corals, it gets its color and most of its energy from microscopic algae (zooxanthellae) living in its tissue.
In the Gulf, this coral is a hermaphrodite that releases eggs and sperm into the water from June to September, and it also spreads by broken branches that reattach and grow. A genetic study of colonies taken from Loreto to Cabo Pulmo found that 54% were clones, about 40% at Cabo Pulmo, and that larvae from the Bahía de La Paz area help supply the reefs downstream, including Cabo Pulmo. The branches also shelter small guard crabs (Trapezia), which live only on pocilloporid corals and feed on the mucus they release.
Genetic studies have only documented one Pocillopora lineage, called type 1, in the Gulf of California; it is the lineage tied to P. meandrina and P. eydouxi, while Indo-Pacific P. verrucosa belongs to another, type 3. Researchers in the Gulf still name colonies by their shape.
Source ↗In the southern Gulf of California, tagged colonies of one cauliflower coral form (P. damicornis) swelled into the shape of another (P. inflata) during 2013 and changed back by November 2014. Both shapes shared the same type 1 DNA.
Source ↗During the 1997 El Niño, water at Cabo Pulmo reached 30.8 °C in August, above the 30.3 °C bleaching threshold. Mass bleaching followed in October, and live coral cover fell from about 30% to 14%.
Source ↗In 2011 water stayed above the threshold for about 73 days and 39% of surveyed colonies bleached completely by November; Pocillopora, growing in the shallowest, warmest water, was hit hardest. Only about 2.4% of coral cover died.
Source ↗In the 2023 marine heat wave, the conservation group Costa Salvaje reported that about half of Cabo Pulmo's corals bleached but only about 10% died, far less than on reefs farther south in Mexico.
Source ↗At Cabo Pulmo–Los Frailes, the coral crab Trapezia ferruginea was the most abundant crab found (71 specimens), and Trapezia crabs made up about 75% of the crabs on the shallowest reef bar.
Source ↗Cauliflower coral is something to see while snorkeling or diving, not something to fish or collect. The best place near Cabo is Cabo Pulmo National Park, where the coral bars and patches form the park's preservation zones, including Las Tachuelas, Los Mangles, Los Morros, El Bajo and the reef in front of the village. Scuba diving there is allowed only with a guide accredited by the park, and snorkelers must wear a life vest in the reef areas. Colonies also grow at Bahía Chileno, between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. Most grow in shallow water, so they are easy to see from the surface on a calm day.
Don't touch, stand on or kneel on coral, and keep your fins up: inside Cabo Pulmo the minimum distance to rocky or coral formations is 2.5 m, and gloves and knives are banned. Boats there may anchor only on sand. Damage adds up: in 2011, about 12% of colonies surveyed in the park showed breakage caused by people, and roughly one in four at the popular El Bajo and Los Morros sites.
| Sport fishing (NOM-017-PESC-1994, 2013 update) | Only fish may be taken; coral cannot be collected |
|---|---|
| Anchoring (NOM-017, 4.16 b) | Never on coral; at least 15 m from the edge of a coral reef |
| Federal Penal Code, art. 420 Bis | 2 to 10 years in prison for damaging reefs, up to 2 more in a protected area |
| Mexico (NOM-059) | Not listed; the Gulf's Pocillopora inflata is listed as threatened (A) |
| CITES | Appendix II: moving coral across borders needs permits |
| IUCN Red List | Endangered (assessed 2023) |
| Cabo Pulmo National Park | No collecting; keep 2.5 m from coral; no gloves or knives; anchor only on sand |
Look, don't touch: breaking or taking coral is illegal in Mexico.
Cauliflower corals are hard to tell apart underwater, and in the Gulf the shapes may not match separate species. P. verrucosa has upright, uniform branches with big, uneven bumps; P. meandrina, the other main form at Cabo Pulmo, has shorter, flatter branches with small, neat bumps; P. capitata has tall, almost cylindrical branches that flatten at the tips and is usually brown. The giant pavona and the Panamic porites coral form mounds or lumps, not branches.
Yes. Cabo Pulmo, on the East Cape of Los Cabos, is the largest coral reef in the Gulf of California, and smaller patches grow in bays such as Bahía Chileno. Cauliflower corals are the main reef builders.
No. Sport fishing rules only allow fish to be taken, damaging reefs is a federal crime, and stony corals are on CITES Appendix II, so carrying coral across borders requires permits.
White coral has bleached: heat stress makes it expel the algae that give it color and food. Corals can recover if the water cools in time, but long heat waves kill them, as in 1997 at Cabo Pulmo.
Top illustration: Top Anglers. Photos: iNaturalist contributors, credited on each photo.
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