Trunk solitary, erect, to 30 metres high, 50–80 cm diam, partly or completely covered with old leaf bases and marcescent dry leaves forming conspicuous skirt around trunk, the lowest and oldest leaves of the skirt eventual falling (after years) exposing the lower smooth trunk. Petiole to 100 cm long, conspicuously armed with reddish brown teeth along margins, with a conspicuous brown abaxial midline at base. Leaf lamina 1–1.5 metres long, 1–1.2 metres wide, plane in undivided section, glossy mid green.
MuM, VVP, RobP, NIS, HSF. Also adventive in South Australia. Native to Mexico (Sonora and Baja).
Adventive in Victoria, where known from a small population at Kergunya South (in north-eastern Victoria), where growing on a degraded slope below road. The population consists of immature plants to 3 metres high, with no parent plant at the site.
