Small rosette shrub, often stemless but at times with a trunk up to 150 cm high, base abruptly swollen, trunk cylindric, smooth. Leaves rusty villous while young, stiff, spreading. Leaflets about 70 pairs, linear, mucronate-acuminate; midrib prominent on both surfaces. Petiole thorny. Leaf bases brown villous. Male cone oblong about 30 cm long. Microsporophylls 17 mm long with a slender terminal point as long as the deltoid clavate limb. Macrosporophylls 10–10.5 cm long, at first densely tawny tomentose, then nearly glabrous; sterile part ovate-rhomboid, margin deeply pectinate, lacerate, with spinous teeth 2.5–5 cm long. Ovules 1 on each side of the stalk at the base of the sterile part. Seed ovoid-oblong, smooth.
Ecosystem & Habitat
The plant is common on lateritic soil in the dry deciduous dipterocarp forests, 20–400 m alt.
