The usually flat oral disc is finely patterned and surrounded by four or five rings of numerous short tentacles, the longest ones being nearest the mouth.

[1] It is common round the coasts of Britain between the tide marks but is relatively little observed because it is well camouflaged and is often hidden in cracks, under overhangs, in rock pools, under seaweed, among mussels or half buried in sand and mud with just its tentacles projecting.

[3] In Morecambe Bay, England, it is found anchored to stones buried several inches beneath the surface of this expanse of mudflats, or sometimes not even attached at all but living freely.

[2] Like other sea anemones, S. troglodytes is a carnivore and feeds on small invertebrates which it traps with its tentacles and channels into its mouth.

The sperm are produced separately also emanating from the mouth when they give the appearance of a white plume being liberated into the water column.