Unsupported Browser Detected

Internet Explorer lacks support for the features of this website. For the best experience, please use a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Edge.

Notice:

The U.S. government is closed. This site will not be updated; however, NOAA websites and social media channels necessary to protect lives and property will be maintained. To learn more, visit commerce.gov. 

For the latest forecasts and critical weather information, visit weather.gov.

*Please note: Some content on this site may be updated as limited tasks may continue.

Pillar Coral

Pillar Coral

Dendrogyra cylindrus

Illustration of a tall, tan pillar coral showing upward growth of branches.

Protected Status

ESA Endangered
Throughout Its Range
CITES Appendix II
Throughout its Range
SPAW Annex III
Throughout the Wider Caribbean Region

Quick Facts

Lifespan
Up to hundreds of years
Threats
Climate change (including ocean warming and ocean acidification), Diseases, Habitat degradation, Land-based sources of pollution, Unsustainable fishing, Small population size
Region
Southeast
Pillar coral with upward growing branches that look like cigars. Fish swimming in the foreground. Pillar coral with fish. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

Pillar coral with fish. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

About the Species

Pillar coral is a hard coral found in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is naturally uncommon or rare in occurrence but is noticeable on the reef because of its size and shape. It often appears as scattered, isolated colonies, but it is sometimes found in groups of colonies that are genetically identical. The population has suffered steep declines in abundance due to stony coral tissue loss disease. Pillar coral is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

NOAA Fisheries is committed to conserving and protecting pillar coral. Our scientists and partners use a variety of innovative techniques to study, learn more about, and protect this species.

Population Status

Pillar coral is a naturally uncommon to rare species, but the population size has severely decreased throughout its range as a result of stony coral tissue loss disease. It has almost completely disappeared from Florida which is the northern extent of its range. Slow colony growth and extremely low successful reproduction limit the ability of pillar coral to recover.

Appearance

Pillar coral forms cylindrical columns on top of encrusting bases and often resembles fingers or a cluster of cigars, growing up from the sea floor. Each pillar coral colony is made up of many individual polyps that grow together. Each polyp is an exact copy of all the polyps in the same colony. Colonies are generally grey-brown in color and may reach 3 m in height. Tentacles remain extended during the day, giving columns a furry appearance. 

Behavior and Diet

Pillar coral gets food from photosynthetic algae that live inside the coral's cells. They also feed by capturing plankton with their polyps’ tentacles. Coral bleaching is the loss of the algae that live in coral tissue. This loss can lead to coral death through starvation or increased vulnerability to diseases.

Where They Live

Pillar coral can be found in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of America (formerly Gulf of Mexico), and southern Atlantic (southern Florida). It lives in most reef environments in water depths ranging from 1 to 25 m and is most common in reef environments in water depths between 5 and 15 m. NOAA Fisheries has designated five critical areas determined to provide critical recruitment habitat for pillar corals off the coast of Florida, the islands of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Navassa.

pillar coral's range map World map providing approximate representation of the Pillar coral's range

Lifespan & Reproduction

Pillar coral is a gonochoric broadcast spawning species, which means that colonies are separate sexes and release eggs and sperm into the water for fertilization and development. However, some hermaphroditic colonies have been observed to produce both eggs and sperm within the same colony, and observations of spawning suggest that eggs may be fertilized within female colonies before release into the water. Pillar coral sexually reproduces once per year several nights following the full moon in late summer. Fertilized eggs develop into larvae that settle on hard surfaces and form new colonies. Pillar coral can also form new colonies when broken pieces, called fragments, re-attach to hard surfaces. Growth rates are slow, generally about 0.8 cm per year. Colonies can live for hundreds of years.

Image
a visual depicting boulder coral life cycle
Life cycle of corals. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

 

Scientific Classification

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Class Anthozoa
Order Scleractinia
Family Merulinidae
Genus Dendrogyra
Species cylindrus

Last updated by NOAA Fisheries on 09/11/2025

What We Do

Conservation & Management

Conservation & Management

We are committed to the protection and recovery of pillar coral through implementation of various conservation, regulatory, and restoration measures. Our work includes:

  • Protecting habitat and designating critical habitat
  • Breeding pillar corals in nurseries and planting them into the wild
  • Gene banking pillar corals to preserve genetic diversity
  • Increasing pillar coral resilience to climate change
  • Rescuing injured pillar corals after ship groundings or major storm events
Learn more about our conservation efforts

How You Can Help

Conserve energy

Conserve Energy

Use energy efficient lighting, bike to work, or practice other energy-saving actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is one of the leading threats to coral reefs.

Learn more about climate and corals

Conserve water

Conserve Water

The less water you use, the less runoff and wastewater carrying nutrients, sediments, and toxins into the ocean.

Learn how toxins and other pollutants affect coral reefs

Practice safe boating

Practice Safe Boating

Anchor in sandy areas away from coral and obey aids-to-navigation/signage to make sure you do not accidentally injure corals that are just below the surface.

Be reef smart

Reduce chemical/sunscreen pollution

Reduce Chemical/Sunscreen Pollution

Choose sunscreen with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide over those containing oxybenzone, which is toxic to corals.

Learn more about what you can do to protect coral reefs

-

Featured News

A diver getting into the water to view coral in the Florida Keys. Credit: Adobe Stock A diver getting into the water to view coral in the Florida Keys. Credit: Adobe Stock
Feature Story

Coral Reefs Fuel Florida’s Economy—Restoration Ensures Their Future

Southeast
Mission Iconic Reefs field team member retrieves a transect tape after completing an outplant coral health assessment survey. Credit: Ben Edmonds/NOAA Mission Iconic Reefs field team member retrieves a transect tape after completing an outplant coral health assessment survey. Credit: Ben Edmonds/NOAA.
Feature Story

NOAA and Partners Launch Next-Generation Coral Restoration Following Florida Coral Bleaching

Southeast
Corals in clear pristine waters. Shallow water provides habitat for branching corals (Acropora spp), as seen here on a reef flat in Guam. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Jonathan Brown
Feature Story

Celebrate Corals Week

National
50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act with smalltooth sawfish, green turtle, Atlantic salmon, staghorn, North Atlantic right whale, and Tubastraea floreana
Feature Story

The Endangered Species Act: 50 Years of Conserving Species

Alaska
New England/Mid-Atlantic
Pacific Islands
Southeast
West Coast
National
View More News

Management Overview

The pillar coral is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  

Additionally, the pillar coral is listed under:

Recovery Planning and Implementation

The Recovery Outline is meant to serve as an interim guidance document to direct recovery efforts, including recovery planning, for pillar coral, rough cactus coral, lobed star coral, mountainous star coral, and boulder star coral.

Species Recovery Contact

Critical Habitat Designation

Once a species is listed under the ESA, NOAA Fisheries evaluates and identifies whether any areas meet the definition of critical habitat. Those areas may be designated as critical habitat through a rule making process. The designation of an area as critical habitat does not create a closed area, marine protected area, refuge, wilderness reserve, preservation, or other conservation area; nor does the designation affect land ownership. Federal agencies that undertake, fund, or permit activities that may affect these designated critical habitat areas are required to consult with NOAA Fisheries to ensure that their actions do not adversely modify or destroy designated critical habitat.

We designated critical habitat for five threatened Caribbean coral species, including the pillar coral. Twenty-eight mostly overlapping specific occupied areas containing physical features essential to the conservation of these coral species were designated as critical habitat. These areas contain approximately 16,830 square kilometers (6,500 square miles) of marine habitat. 

Conservation Efforts

Working to Enhance Populations

Severely reduced successful reproductive recruitment into the population is one of the major obstacles things impeding recovery of pillar corals. There are many factors that are contributing to this problem. NOAA Fisheries, with many partners, is are taking several steps to help, including:

  • Establishing a network of coral nurseries throughout the species’ range to conserve, grow, and asexually produce fragments and outplant them to the reef.
  • Researching and implementing sexual reproduction techniques such as cryopreservation (preserving through a cooling process) of sperm and collection and fertilization of eggs and sperm for short-term rearing in the lab and outplanting to the reef.

Responding to Physical Impacts

Ship grounding and other physical impacts can break pillar corals. If the broken fragments are stabilized quickly after being broken, the corals can survive and continue to grow. NOAA Fisheries supports a program to respond to these events in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands where tens of thousands of corals have been rescued.

Conserving Coral Reefs

NOAA Fisheries is part of the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program which brings together a team of various expertise from across NOAA to understand and conserve coral reef ecosystems. The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program focuses on implementing projects to address the impacts from the top three recognized global threats to coral reefs: climate change (including ocean acidification), land-based sources of pollution, and unsustainable fishing practices.

Regulatory History

Pillar coral was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. The most recent 5-year review recommended a change  to endangered status based on population declines and susceptibility to stony coral tissue disease. In December 2024, a final rule was published to reclassify pillar coral from a threatened to an endangered species; that rule became effective on March 21, 2025.

Learn more about pillar coral permitting under the ESA 

Key Actions and Documents

Actions & Documents

Reclassification of Pillar Coral from Threatened to Endangered

NOAA Fisheries is changing the status of pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus) from threatened to endangered on the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Species. We have considered the 5-year review of the status of D. cylindrus, expert reviewer…
Final Rule,
Southeast
Published

Final Rule to Designate Critical Habitat for the Threatened Caribbean Corals

We, NOAA Fisheries, designate critical habitat for five threatened Caribbean coral species, Orbicella annularis, O. faveolata, O. franksi, Dendrogyra cylindrus, and Mycetophyllia ferox, pursuant to section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Twenty…
Final Rule,
Southeast
Effective

5-Year Review of Staghorn Coral, Elkhorn Coral, Pillar Coral, Rough Cactus Coral, Lobed Star Coral, Mountainous Star Coral, and Boulder Star Coral

NOAA Fisheries has published a 5-year review of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis), elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata), pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus), rough cactus coral (Mycetophyllia ferox), lobed star coral (Orbicella annularis), mountainous…
Notice,
Southeast
Published

Listing of 20 Reef-Building Coral Species Under the ESA

We, NOAA Fisheries, are publishing this final rule to implement our final determination to list the following 20 species as threatened: five in the Caribbean (Dendrogyra cylindrus, Orbicella annularis, Orbicella faveolata, Orbicella franksi, and…
Final Rule,
Pacific Islands
Southeast
Effective

More Information

Last updated by NOAA Fisheries on 09/11/2025

Documents

Document

Caribbean Corals 5-Year Review

NOAA Fisheries has published a 5-year review of staghorn coral, elkhorn coral, pillar coral, rough…

Southeast
Document

5 Caribbean Coral Species Recovery Outline

This document serves as an interim guidance document to direct recovery efforts for pillar coral,…

Southeast
More Documents

Data & Maps

More Data
More Maps

Last updated by NOAA Fisheries on 09/11/2025