Description

 The common names refers to the appearance of the column. This anemone has a broad base, up to 5 cm in diameter, which is lightly to moderately adhesive. The column is up to 10 cm tall and trumpet shaped. The column, is covered with small warts arranged into 48 longitudinal rows. These warts do not have gravel or debris stuck to them. Anthopleura ballii has up to 96 tentacles arranged into 5 circles and can have a brilliant green sheen. The tentacles are stout at the base and can be up to 3 cm in length with a span of about 12 cm. Gosse (1860) describes four varieties of Anthopleura ballii which can be distinguished mainly by the different colours of the tentacles and disc.The warts on the column of the similar species Anthopleura thallia are invariably covered with gravel or debris (Manuel, 1988)