It is found in the Pacific Ocean on the western coast of North America in the shallow sub-littoral zone.

The column is unarmed with acontia and has no tubercles, but has some small adhesive warts to which sand or other fragments may stick.

There are broad white markings on the oral disc near the base of the tentacles but these do not extend as far as the mouth, a fact which distinguishes it from the rather similar Epiactis prolifera.

It is a simultaneous hermaphrodite, producing eggs and retaining them in the body cavity where they are fertilised.

When the larvae are sufficiently developed, with their tentacles starting to grow, they emerge through the parent's mouth as juvenile anemones and crawl away to settle nearby.