Stems clustered, non-climbing, to 3 m, to 4 cm in diam. Leaf sheaths with brown hairs, densely covered with short rows of yellowish, flattened spines to 2.5 cm; ocreas to 15 cm, spiny as sheath, fibrous, disintegrating; knees absent; flagella absent; rachis to 1 m with 30-45 linear pinnae per side, these regularly arranged but sometimes with gaps; middle pinnae 20-28 cm, 1-1.7 cm wide at mid-point, margins not or scarcely bristly, densely white waxy abaxially and with many minute bristles; cirri absent. Inflorescences to 1 m, erect, not flagellate; inflorescence bracts splitting and tattering longitudinally and eventually disintegrating. Fruits brownish, pear-shaped, with a pronounced rostrum, to 2.7 × 1.5 cm, scales with densely brown tomentose margins.

● Lowland rain forests or bamboo forests in hilly places usually near streams; 400-1400 m. Guangdong, Guangxi.