Dioecious palm. Stem commonly dichotomously branched 1 or more times, but sometimes simple, 9-20 m tall. Leaves 20-30, in terminal crown, at the top of each branch; leaf blade stiff, nearly orbicular, up to 90 cm long, palmately cut to middle or deeper into 20 or more segments. Inflorescence axillary. Flowers small, pale yellow. Fruit smelling like ginger, pumpy, brown glossy, punctate, mostly obliquely ovoid or oblong, 7-8.5 cm long and almost as broad or longer than broad, pericarp fibrous, endocarp woody.

Type: Palma thebaica Pococke, description of the East, and other countries t: 281, pl. 72, 73. 1743. (Moore & Dransfield, Taxon 28(1,2/3): 60. 1979).

Distribution: A native of N. Africa; in Pakistan it is sometimes cultivated in the gardens (Karachi).