Solitary, erect palms. Trunk slender, frequently with swollen base. Leaves paripinnate, caducous; rachis ±straight or slightly curved; leaf sheath forming a tubular crownshaft. Pinnae reduplicate, linear-acute, in a single plane; midrib prominent; abaxial surface green or with silver-grey scales; ramenta present or lacking. Inflorescence infrafoliar, a divaricate panicle branched to 3 or 4 orders; bracts 2, fully enclosing inflorescence in bud; prophyll fibrous; peduncular bract membranous, inserted slightly above attachment of prophyll; rachis longer than peduncle; rachillae flexuose. Flowers in triads throughout or with paired or solitary male flowers distally on the rachillae, spirally arranged. Staminate flower asymmetric in bud; stamens 9–35; anthers dorsifixed; filaments curved or deflexed. Pistillate flower smaller than staminate. Fruit moderate, conic-ovoid to subglobose, red; stigmatic remains apical to subapical; epicarp thin, smooth; mesocarp with anastomosing fibres. Seed ovoid to subglobose; endosperm ruminate; embryo basal. Eophyll bifid.
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