This is a small, solitary understory palm with a slender, upright trunk, giving it an elegant and refined presence. The most striking feature is its perfectly distichous leaf arrangement, with leaves emerging in a single flat plane on opposite sides of the stem, creating a dramatic feather-like profile unlike almost any other palm. The crown consists of dark green, narrow leaflets that are mottled and have widely divided segments or are bifid. The inflorescence emerges beneath the leaves and produces small, rounded fruits that ripen from green to bright red, adding ornamental interest at close range. In habitat, this species grows in the shaded rainforest understory, where its flattened leaf arrangement allows it to efficiently capture filtered light beneath the forest canopy.