Stem robust more or less uniform in diameter, up to 24 m tall, 60-120 cm in diameter, upper part covered with dead leaves. Crown dense, close; leaves circular in outline, divided from the middle into 70-75 segments, segments glabrous, pendulous, filamentous on the margin and at the apex, a long thread hanging at the sinus of each segment; costa prominent, hastula at the apex of petiole triangular, whitish, spongy. Petiole long, plano-convex, margin of the lower portion spinous, spines yellow, hooked, hard. Inflorescence among the foliage, longer than the leaves, declined, bracts tubular at base, sheathing the branches and branchlets, flattened at anthesis. Flowers white, subsessile; calyx 3-lobed, campanulate, c. 3 mm long; corolla 3-lobed, 6-7 mm long, papery, lanceolate, acuminate; anthers large, dorsifixed, versatile, hastate, filaments fusiform. Ovary tri-lobed, stigmas three, style filiform, exserted. Fruit black, small, c. 8 x 6 mm.