Trunk almost subterranean, to 60 × 20 cm above ground, base swollen; bark dark gray, scaly, except at base of trunk where nearly smooth. Leaves 3-8, 2-pinnate, flat, 2-3(-4) m × 40-60(-80) cm; petiole 0.5-1(-2) m, with sparse, short spines; leaf blade glaucous when young, flat; leaflets dichotomously 1 (-3)-forked into 1 or 2(or 3) segments; segments linear, often irregular, 10-38 × 1.5-3 cm, papery, base constricted into a short petiolule 0.5-5 cm, decurrent, margin somewhat undulate, apex attenuate to long acuminate. Cataphylls broadly deltoid, 3-4 × 4-5 cm, densely brown velutinous. Pollen cones fusiform-cylindric, 15-23 × 4-6 cm; microsporophylls 1.2-2 cm × 8-10 mm, tomentose, apex acute. Megasporophylls 8-12 cm, brown tomentose, glabrescent; stalk ca. 4 cm; sterile blade obovate, ca. 4 × 3 cm, deeply divided into 13-17 subulate lobes 1-2 cm; ovules 1 or 2 on each side of stalk. Seeds 2-4, greenish to yellowish, obovoid, slightly compressed, 2.3-2.8 × 1.8-2.4 cm; sclerotesta finely verrucose, apex mucronate. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Oct-Nov.
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