Pavona decussata is a foliose to plating scleractinian coral (family Agariciidae) distributed across the Indo-Pacific, forming thin, upright, irregular plates with characteristic decussate (cross-hatched) septal arrangement visible on the colony surface. The species inhabits lagoons, sheltered reef slopes, and turbid inshore reef environments where it competes for space with encrusting algae and other corals. Pavona species are important contributors to mesophotic and turbid reef ecosystems often overlooked in reef biodiversity assessments. Genomic data have been generated for this species and are available in public databases, enabling comparative studies of cnidarian evolution and ecology.