Graceful palms with pinnate leaves. Crownshaft not developed. Leaf sheaths fibrous. Inflorescences spicate, borne in axils of lowest leaves and maturing after the leaves have eventually fallen; prophyll fibrous, short; penduncular bract pendulous, cylindrical, much larger than prophyll. Flowers immersed in spike, in groups of 3, 2 staminate with 1 pistillate between, which develops later. Male flowers: sepals 3; petals 3, coriaceous, projecting c. 1 cm; stamens 30–100, with basifixed anthers; pistillode absent or very small. Female flowers: sepals 3; petals 3, half projecting; staminodes tooth-shaped; ovary ovoid-ellipsoidal; stigma 3-lobed, ± sessile. Fruit a drupe, ovoid-ellipsoidal to ellipsoidal.
Together, the two Howea species form the mainstay of the Island's palm seed industry although, today, most of the trade from the Island is in newly germinated seedlings. They are also cultivated on Norfolk Island for an export trade in their seed (see Coyne 2011: 173).
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