This is a tall and elegant species. The stem is from fifteen to twenty feet high and about one inch in diameter, with a few scattered groups of small spines. The leaves are regularly pinnate, with broad leaflets narrowed at the base and ending in a lengthened point, the terminal pair being rather broader. The petioles and their sheathing bases are covered with broad, flat, whitish spines.

The spadices grow from among the lower leaves on long stalks and are simply branched and drooping. The spathes are elongate fusiform and spiny, and are persistent. The fruit is small and globular.

This very graceful palm grows in the moist part of the virgin forest of the Upper Rio Negro, where I found it on the banks of small forest streams; and it seems quite distinct from any of the very numerous species described by Martius.