Straight brown pillar-like column widening towards the tentacles. Body is covered in pale yellow or grey warts arranged in longitudinal rows. It has 72 brown, yellow and white tentacles arranged in 4 rows and brown or grey oral disc.

In tidepools they attach to rocks but on mudflats, 4-5 anemones attach to a cockle shell or small rocks.

Some of the animal's nutrition is provided by the symbiotic algae in the tissues, however, this anemone also filters minute planktonic animals from the water.

This anemone reproduces asexually by budding, if you look closely at the oral disc, you will see that the "face" patterns are identical in animals living closely together, indicating that they are clones.

The tissues of the anemone support colonies of photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae.

NZ Coastal Marine Invertebrates; Vol 1 Raupō Pocket dictionary of modern Maori