It is a type of shrubby palm between 1 to 4 meters high, branched from the base or sometimes with a single trunk. The leaves, about 50 to 80 cm in diameter, are palmate and divided into numerous leaflets (small leaves), greyish or bluish-green, hard and ending in apices divided in two. The petioles of the leaves are covered along their entire length with straight, yellow-coloured spines about 2 to 3 cm long. It is a dioecious species (separate male and female specimens). The flowers appear in groups of between 15 to 20 cm long, born at the end of the trunks, between the leaves. It produces small fleshy, round, immature green fruits turning reddish to blackish when ripe. The typical habitat of this species is in dry or arid very sunny areas. It is indifferent to the type of soil and can grow in very rocky or sandy areas. It also resists environments near the sea with saline winds, being able to colonize from dunes and sandy beaches, to areas of cliffs and coastal rocky areas. Its formations are called palmitares and inhabits from sea level to 500 m of altitude. Given the conditions, sometimes extreme, in which this plant lives, it is very adapted to withstand long periods of drought and strong winds, it is therefore a very flexible plant with a highly developed root system. Given the palmate shape of their leaves, they are able to condense the ambient moisture and turn it into available water to be absorbed. Its main form of reproduction is vegetative, through its rhizomes, which develop underground. The leaves are very fibrous and from them are extracted strands called ‘vegetable horsehair’, which are used to make baskets, cordage or brooms. The leaf buds, the pith of the stems and the modified leaf (spathe) of the inflorescence, when tender, can be eaten fresh or preserved.