Covered with many distinctive small spine-like branches. Red, brown or dark green in color but turns yellow in bright sunlight. Often covered with epiphytic crustose coralline seaweeds giving off a pink appearance. Y shaped branches and usually dark red in appearance.
Color is highly variable, often branches are rosy-straw colored with red tips.
May be completely solid and smooth or divided into a fine lacelike network on outer portion. Soft thick mats can cover large areas of the reef flat. Main branches are 0.5 mm in diameter with many smaller branches growing out from them. In deeper water it is dark red in shallow water it appears pale red. Has distinctive tree-like branching pattern.