Its colour is variable, from deep red to brown or purplish, with green spots and darker tentacles.

Their diet comprises small fish and crustaceans, which they immobilize by firing groups of stinging cells (cnidae) into them.

The colour is very variable; some individuals have a red column with green blotches, grey verrucae and greyish banded tentacles; others have a red column and disc with grey verrucae and white tentacles.

[1] Dahlia anemones are found on rocks and boulders from the lower shore down to depths of 100 metres.

It occurs in rock pools, in crevices and gullies, among the holdfasts of Laminaria spp., in caves and partly buried in gravel.