Plant arborescent, unbranched but often suckering from base to form clumps of up to 6 stems. Stem erect but often leaning to some extent or even pendulous from cliffs, up to 2.5 m tall and 250-300 mm thick, covered by relatively small remains of leaf bases which are often charred from fires in its grassland habitat; crown not woolly but cataphylls initially covered by a thin, whitish, felt-like indumentum. Leaves 800-900(-1200?) mm long, rigid and straight or very slightly recurved near apices; petioles unarmed, hemiterete, initially with a whitish felt-like indumentum but glabrous at maturity, yellowish, 90-200 mm long and 7-10 mm thick; rachis yellowish; basal leaflets very slightly reduced in size but not to prickles; median leaflets incubously overlapping, spaced 8-10 mm apart, directed towards apex of leaf at angle of about 45°, opposing leaflets set at angle of about 135° to each other, dark green, very narrowly ovate and somewhat falcate with margins entire and revolute and apices acute and pungent, abaxially finely ribbed with (12-)14-16 veins, 60-80 mm long and 1012 mm wide. Male cones up to 6 per stem seen, sessile, very narrowly ovoid, covered in minute and very short whitish felt-like indumentum, about 350 mm long and 60-70 mm in diameter in dried state; exposed faces of median microsporophylls rhombic, about 22 mm wide and 5 mm high, drawn out to a length of about 6 mm to the central facet; central facet rhombic, smooth, 7-9 mm wide and 3-5 mm wide. Female cones unknown.
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