Plant (only male known) branching from the base (sometimes branched above in cultivation); stem up to 6 m tall, 50-90 cm diam. at base, narrowing to about 50-60 cm above, with densely leafy crown and woolly bracts. Leaves 1.8-2.5 m long including petiole 10-20 cm long; rhachis gracefully spreading-recurved or arched, densely pale brown woolly at first becoming glabrous with age except for large pulvinus about 10 cm broad; leaflets leathery, dark green, gradually reduced to prickles at the base, those from juvenile suckers variably 2-5-toothed in the lower half on one or both margins, those on old stems often with entire margins; median leaflets more or less ovate-lanceolate, up to about 20 cm long and 5 cm broad, the apex often slightly hooked and blunt. Male cone 1-several, bright orange-yellow, on short stout peduncles, subcylindric, 40-90 cm long, rarely up to 120 cm, 15-20 cm diam., median scales up to about 7 cm long and 3-3.5 cm broad; bulla with the beak projecting 2.5-3.5 cm beyond sporangial surface, with acute lateral ridges, the upper facet with a central ridge or hump, the lower facet rounded or slightly ridged, the terminal facet slightly concave, about 1 cm broad and about the same vertically, often with raised margin.
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