It was first described by the German zoologist and botanist Peter Simon Pallas in 1766, from a single specimen he received from near Marseilles in the Mediterranean Sea.

A colony of Antipathes dichotoma can grow to a height of 1 m (3 ft 3 in) or more.

The smaller branches bear four to six rows of short, smooth conical spines.

[2] Antipathes dichotoma occurs in the Mediterranean Sea and parts of the temperate western Atlantic Ocean.

[2] The black coral growing off Hawaii, for example, has been reclassified as Antipathes griggi.