Erect tall pinnate-leaved monoecious palms with strong brace-roots near the base of the obscurely ringed trunk, unarmed except that the brace-roots may bear spinous processes, the pinnae unequal in size and shape and variously erose or notched or jagged at apex, crownshaft prominent and more or less bulged at apex of bole and underneath the canopy of leaf-blades: spadices infrafoliar, once-branched, eventually drooping or hanging; cymbas 2, thin and papery when dry, the spadix itself usually bractless; pistillate flowers either near the base of the rachilla or the length of it among the staminate flowers, normally 1 between 2 staminates; stamens many, about equalling the valvate petals, sepals very small, pistillode minute or none; pistillate flowers with imbricate small sepals; staminodia lacking; ovary 3-loculed: fruit drupe-like but with firm or hard exterior, ellipsoid or obovoid or oblong, size of small plum, 1-to 2-seeded; albumen equable, embryo subapical.
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