Unarmed, tall, palm tree; trunk naked or sheathed, covered with corky edges; leaves few, broad, very large, bipinnatisect, forming terminal crowns, leaflets very obliquely, dimediately flabelliform, acutely serrate or toothed, long, upper narrower, upper margins caudate; petiolules swollen at the base; petioles short, stout; spadix interfoliar, shortly peduncled, simple or fastgiately branched, branches slender, pendulous; spathes 3-5, incomplete, tubular; flowers many, males solitary or in three with central female; male flowers symmetric with sepals-3, rounded, imbricate; petals-3, linear-oblong, valvate; stamens numerous, filaments very short, anthers oblong; female flowers subglobose; sepals-3, rounded, imbricate; petals-3, linear-oblong, valvate, much shorter than in males, staminodes 3; ovary 3-celled, ovule basal, erect, stigma terminal, 3-lobed; fruits reddish brown, globose or ellipsoid, drupe; seeds 1-2, hemispheric, black, striated, albumen ruminant.