Trunk tall, massive, smooth, unbranched, upper part densely covered with dead leaves and petioles. Leaves large, costa-palmate, orbicular, plicate, deeply divided into numerous segments, lobed nearly to the middle, segments induplicate, numerous, margin and sinus usually filamentous; petiole armed, planoconvex, green margin strongly armed with hooked spines. Inflorescence axillary, long, much branched, branches more or less zigzag or wavy, slender, glabrous; bracts flattened and almost woody, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, small, white; calyx cup-shaped, trilobed; corolla longer than the calyx with narrow reflexed lobes; stamens 6, in two series, filaments free, fusiform; carpels 3, united by their styles. Fruit small black, ovoid-oblong with thin pericarp.