Clustered palm; stem, underground dichotomously branches, 30-50 cm in diameter; leaves, erect, pinnate, up to 5 m long; leaflets, 40-60 per side, regularly arranged, linear to lanceolate; inflorescences, interfoliar, erect panicle with a thick peduncle; female inflorescences, globular head; male inflorescences, dense spikes; flowers, unisexual; males, crowded, catkin-like; females, aggregated in a dense rounded head; infructescences, joined in a globular, terminal, pineapple-like fruit, 15-20 cm in diameter, chestnut brown; fruit, roughly wedge-shaped, 7.5 cm long, dark brown when ripe. Uses: Construction, handicrafts, source of sugar, alcoholic beverages and ornamental plant

Evergreen tree, 4-8 m tall; leaves, large, coriaceous or chartaceous, alternate, distichous on normal branches, elliptic to obovate-oblong; inflorescences, on trunk and branches, usually borne on small tubercles in short cymose branchlets; fruit, drupe but referred to as pod, indehiscent, variable in size and shape, spherical to cylindrical, from green to yellow to red or purple when ripe; seeds, 20-60 per pod, arranged in 5 rows, ovoid or elliptic. Uses: Food and medicinal plant