The polyp is large and fleshy with tapering tentacles bearing groups of stinging cells.

The species is native to the western seaboard of North America, from British Columbia to Baja California.

It appreciates habitats with vigorous water movement, such as surge channels, and often grows in caves and under overhangs.

The B. elegans does not typically have any predators due to its strong skeleton and toxic defense system.

They evert spyrocysts (stinging cells) that produce tangles of sticky tubes that capture prey or attach to coral.

A filamentous, blue-green photosynthetic bacterium or alga (cyanobacteria or cyanophyte) can inhabit the skeletal structure of the orange cup coral, causing a purple-red hue in the bare skeleton.