Small tree or shrub to 10 (–15) m high; prop roots basal. Leaves 1–2 m long, 5–8 cm wide, arching-drooping, attenuate to flagelliform, darker green above; marginal prickles antrorse, 1–3 mm long and 2–5 mm apart near base. Staminate inflorescence spicate-racemose; spikes 6–9 cm long; bracts white; staminate phalanges with 15–32 stamens. Pistillate head ellipsoidal-subglobose, c. 22 cm long; peduncle c. 20–24 cm long, 2 cm thick; head of 50–70 carpellate phalanges ripening to orange polydrupes. Polydrupes of 9–26 carpels, plump, pyriform-ovoid, rounded-convex, 6.5–7.5 cm long, 4–5.7 cm wide; carpel apex acuminate-pyramidal, angular, with a depression or platform behind stylar process; apical and lateral sutures evident; stigma c. 1–2 mm long.
Forms dense thickets on shore terraces, often next to the sea, thriving on exposed limestone cliffs with scarcely any soil. Also occurs inland on limestone and beneath the rainforest canopy particularly on limestone scree. These thickets are often dense tangles of descending prop roots, decumbent-ascending stems and projecting branches.
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