Platygyra is a genus of stony corals and belongs to the Merulinidae. The growth form is similar to brain corals - colonies are plate-shaped to massive. Most conspicuous are the elongated valleys of polyp walls that encompass several polyps with multiple mouths. The taxonomic situation, as with many corals, is a disaster - differentiation from related species such as Favites or Goniastrea is rarely cleanly possible, and if so then usually only microscopically on dead specimens of the skeleton or by DNA analysis. Revisions are also common. We therefore simply use the name for all brain coral-like LPS plates with the typical polyp valleys.
The requirements are fortunately also similar across species - medium current, medium to weak lighting, nutrients may also be higher - in short: typical for LPS. Most interesting are the different color variations with contrasting colors on the "valleys" and "ridges", often "monochromatic" brown with green/purple, but sometimes both multicolored. In addition, patterned specimens with thin transverse stripes appear especially on the combs.
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