Edible Portion: Juice - Flowers, Sap, Seeds, Cabbage, Sago, Starch, Palm Heart
A large palm. It grows to 18 m high. It forms one trunk 30 cm across and covered with old leaf bases and black fibres. It has spines 7.5 cm long. It has long leaves which reach upwards. They have leaflets along the stalk made up of 100 or more pairs. The leaves are 8.5 m long. The leaflets are whitish beneath, lobed at the tip and with ear like pieces near the base. They have large flower stalks hanging down from the leaf axils. Several fruit stalks develop from the top downwards. When the palm is mature a flowering shoot is sent out from the axil of the upper leaf then followed by other flowers until the tree reserves are exhausted and the palm dies. The fruit are round and dark red. They are 4 cm across. The fruit pulp damages skin. There are usually 3 seeds per fruit. They have one flat side.