Montipora efflorescens is an encrusting to foliose scleractinian coral (family Acroporidae) distributed across Indo-Pacific shallow reef environments, forming irregular thin plates or encrusting sheets with a warty surface texture and small embedded corallites characteristic of the genus. The species harbors Symbiodiniaceae photosymbionts and is found across diverse reef zones including lagoons and outer slopes. Understanding the genomic basis of diversification within the ecologically important genus Montipora is a major goal of reef coral genomics.