Small to robust, solitary or clustering pleonanthic dioecious palms. Trunk usually branching by repeated forking, apparently truly dichotomous, the forking sometimes apparently occurring underground, thus giving rise to a clump of even-sized trunks, in one species the trunk flattened and prostrate, in another almost always unbranched and ventricose; trunk when young clothed with persistent leaf-bases, these then rotting or succumbing to burning leaving a clean trunk. Leaves borne spirally; leaf-base partially sheathing, split to produce a central triangular cleft; petiole usually well developed, usually semi-circular in cross-section, densely armed with reflexed or upward-pointing spines, often also bearing stellate scales and wax; adaxial hastula conspicuous except in very young seedling leaves, frequently asymmetrical, markedly oblique, often, especially in young leaves, partially obscured by dense hairs and scales; blade often conspicuously costapalmate, divided to about 1/3 the length of the folds into single fold induplicate segments, filaments often conspicuous at the sinuses; lamina-surfaces frequently waxy and dotted with black scales; longitudinal and transverse veinlets inconspicuous. Inflorescences basically similar, though the ♂ frequently more slender and more highly branched than the ♀; axis frequently flattened towards the base, bearing a basal, empty, 2-keeled tubular prophyll and 1 or 2 tubular peduncular bracts with short triangular limbs; rachis longer than the peduncle; bracts frequently densely stellate hairy; first-order branches usually markedly compressed, semi-circular in cross-section, elongate, bearing at the tip 1–13 rachillae (in ♀ usually 1 or 2 only) in a fascicle, each subtended by a small triangular bract; rachillae bearing imbricate, spirally arranged, laterally connate bracts, each enclosing a floral pit, often densely filled with fluffy hairs. Male flowers borne in groups of 3 forming a cincinnus, embedded in hairs, one flower exposed at a time; calyx tubular at the base, with 3 apical cucullate lobes; corolla stalk-like at the base, with 3 apical triangular imbricate lobes, reflexed at anthesis; stamens 6, borne at the base of the corolla-lobes with short filaments and basifixed anthers; pistillode minute. Female flower solitary in the axil of each bract, much larger than the ♂, borne on a densely pubescent pedicel; sepals 3, free, imbricate, rounded; petals 3, free, imbricate, rounded, similar to the sepals; staminodal ring membranous, with 6 teeth, each tipped with minute empty anthers; ovary globose, with 3 apical, triangular, ± sessile stigmas, 3-locular, usually only 1 ovule developing to anthesis, the ovary hence asymmetrical, but occasionally with all carpels equally developed. Fruit extremely variable, borne on the enlarged pedicel, the perianth-segments persistent but hardly enlarging; stigmatic remains basal; epicarp sometimes pitted, coloured various shades of brown; mesocarp fibrous, often aromatic and edible; endocarp hard, stony; endosperm homogeneous, hollow; embryo apical. Germination remote-tubular; seedling leaf simple, plicate.
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