Bugulina flabellata is a colonial bryozoan forming small clumps up to 5 cm (2 in) high with a characteristic cone or fan-shape.

It grows on rock surfaces or the undersides of boulders, on stones and on shells, at depths down to about 300 m (1,000 ft).

Bugulina flabellata is a protogynous hermaphrodite, that is, each zooid starts life as a female but later becomes a male.

Bugulina flabellata seems specially adapted to grow and reproduce fast during the period in summer when there is an abundance of phytoplankton.

[3] Bugulina flabellata is one of the species that form a bryozoan "turf", along with Bicellariella ciliata and Bugulina turbinata, on steep or vertical, moderately wave-exposed rock, round the coasts of Britain just below the littoral zone; this habitat tends to be dominated by aggregations of the jewel anemone Corynactis viridis and the cup coral Caryophyllia smithii.