The cycad is a small tree, growing to about in height, with a trunk diameter of up to . The bark is grey and distinctively fissured into rectangular, or diamond-shaped, segments. The leaves grow from the crown – bright green, glossy, palm-like fronds, long, with 150–200 leaflets on each frond. The spiny petiole is long. The male plant's strobilus, or cone, is oblong-ellipsoidal, long, orange in colour and foetid in odour. The female's megasporophylls are about 30 cm long, fleshy, brown and densely hairy, with the fertile area about wide. The seeds are 45 mm long and 30 mm wide, ripening from green to an orange- or reddish-brown colour.
