Plant arborescent, unbranched but usually suckering from base. Stem erect, up to 1.5 or rarely 3.0 m tall and 350 mm thick, with a densely tomentose crown. Fronds 1.20-1.45(-2.00) m long, dark glossy-green, straight, rigid, with short petioles 70-110 mm long; leaflets directed towards apex of frond at angle of (15-)35(-45) degrees, opposing leaflets set at angle of ca. 135 degrees to each other, basal leaflets spaced 25-30 mm apart and not overlapping, gradually reduced to prickles, median leaflets very slightly succubously overlapping or not at all, 125-150 mm long and 16-18 mm wide, very narrowly elliptic and very slightly falcate, tapering to both ends, apices oblique and pungent, margins very slightly revolute (more conspicuously so in dried than fresh material) with 1-3 teeth on upper margin and 1-2 on lower margin. Cones of both sexes very similar almost to maturation, sessile, ellipsoid, 2-4 per stem observed; male cones ellipsoid becoming somewhat more narrowly ellipsoid only at maturation, lemon-yellow colour obscured by dense brown indumentum, 290-330(-380) mm long and 140-180 mm wide, sessile as peduncles 50-60 mm long are buried in crown of stem, median bullae rhombic, 30-35 mm wide by 22-32 mm high, not projected into beak-like structures but with central facet slightly raised and about half the diameter of the bulla, bullae smooth except for tuberculose central facet; female cones ellipsoid, green colour obscured by dense brown indumentum, 350-410 mm long and 200-230 mm wide, sessile as peduncles 20-25 mm long are buried in crown of stem, median bullae hexagonal, 44-57 mm wide by 30-40 mm high with central facet slightly raised and half or less the diameter of the bulla, bullae tuberculose, seeds covered with bright red flesh, seed kernels with poorly-expressed longitudinal ridges, ellipsoid to slightly ovoid, 25-29 mm long and 15-19 mm in diameter. Receptive female cones as well as male cones shedding pollen were observed between April and early July.
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