A palm. It has one stem. It grows 40 m tall and the trunk is 50-90 cm wide. It is often swollen. The leaves are in a compact crown at the top. The leaf stalks are 1-2 m long and the leafy shoots are 4-6 m long with 19-22 leaflets on each side. There are 20-27 secondary leaflets on each side of the secondary shoots. The ends are blunt and the edges jagged. The flowering shoot is 6 m long and produced amongst the leaves.