A large, creeping, unarmed, pleonanthic, monoecious palm; stem prostrate or subterranean (rhizome), up to 45 cm in diameter, branching dichotomously at regular intervals, with curved leaf scars above, and roots along the underside. Leaves in tufts of 3-5 per plant, erect, 4.5-14.2 m long, simply pinnate; petiole very stout, up to 1.5 m long, channeled adaxially, terete distally, dilated towards the base into a short sheath; leaflets up to 163 per leaf, linear, single-fold, 1.2-1.5 m x 6.5-8.6 cm, coriaceous, midrib bearing appressed brown scales on lower surface. Inflorescence solitary, interfoliar, erect, branched, multibracteate, protogynous, up to 2.1 m long with a stout, terete, up to 2.4 m long peduncle; rachis usually shorter than the peduncle, terete, terminating in a globose head of female flowers surrounded by numerous, short, catkin-like rachillas (spikes) terminating the lateral branches and bearing densely crowded, spirally arranged, solitary male flowers; most branches subtended by large, tubular, rubbery bracts protecting flowers and fruits. Fruit a drupe, developing from 1 carpel, compressed and irregularly angled, pyramidal, 10-15 cm x 6-8 cm, brown to blackish, exocarp smooth, mesocarp fibrous, endocarp thick and composed of interwoven fibrous strands. Seed broadly ovoid, grooved adaxially, hilum basal, endosperm homogeneous.

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

The juice from young shoots is used against herpes. The ash of burned nipa material against toothache and headache.