Gregarious, usually small tufted palm, from a much branched underground rhizome. Leaves 30-60 (-130) cm long, coriaceous, glabrous, gradually and evenly narrowed to the base. Hastula absent; petiole 15-30 x 2.5-3 (-4) cm from the base, concavo-convex, base covered with a mass of rust-coloured wool, margin serrate. Leaf blade 60-90 cm long and broad, palmately divided to the middle or lower into 8-15 (-40) segments with sometimes thread like interposed fibres; segments induplicate, deeply bipartite, 30-38 cm long, linear, rigid. Inflorescence erect, slender, ramified compound panicle, 60 cm - 1 m long. Usually 3 flowers within a bracteole, developing in succession, one sessile and others pedicelled; calyx 2-3 mm long, thin, flat, membranous, joined, forming a trilobed tube; petals c. 4 x c. 2 mm, coriaceous, connate at base; stamens dorsifixed, filaments subulate, anthers 1-1.5 mm long, deeply sagittate; style short. Seeds (9-) 11.5-15 x 11-15 mm.

Fl. Per.: July-November. Fr. Per.: Summer.

Lectotype: Fruit from plant cultivated in Saharanpur Botanical Garden (Beccari, Ann. Roy. Bat. Gard. Calcutta. 13: 38. 1933).

Distribution: Wild in Sind, W. Punjab and Mekran, Peshawar valley, Kohat, trans Indus territory, Afghanistan and S. Persia.

Leaves are used for making various kinds of mats, baskets, fans and brushes; also used medicinally as a cure of dysentry and diarrhoea. Inflorescence and fruits are used as food.