Stems short or subterranean, clustered, sometimes creeping, forming small clumps. Leaves 6-14, palmate, forming an open crown; leaf sheaths open, with coarse, black or brown fibers, these either free and spinelike or remaining joined at their apices and then forming a distinct point; petioles with smooth, sharp margins; hastula present; blades ± silvery white abaxially, divided to 3/4 or more their length into many segments, reduplicate, rarely blade undivided; margins of leaves with minute sawlike teeth. Plants dioecious. Inflorescences branched to 4 orders, borne among leaves; bracts 2; flowers very small, arranged spirally along rachillae. Fruits bluish black, small, globose to almost ellipsoid, 1-seeded; endosperm homogeneous with an irregular intrusion of seed coat; germination remote, eophyll not known.
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