On the oral disc there are two to four whorls of thirty to sixty tapering, blunt-tipped, fully retractile tentacles and a central mouth.

The oral disc is green to brown, paler near the mouth, with chevron-shaped markings, and the tentacles are the same colour as the column and sometimes barred with white.

[1] It is an uncommon species and its range includes the Isle of Man, Ireland, the southwest of England, Normandy, Brittany, Galicia, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean Sea.

The column is often buried in sand or concealed in a crevice, or may occur among mussels or under gravel, and usually has sedimentary particles or debris sticking to it.

[4] This fact helps to distinguish this species from the closely related red speckled anemone (Anthopleura ballii) which has a non-adhesive column.