Formidably spined clustering palm. Trunks slender, to about 1.5 m tall, with long, erect, needle-like black spines arising from the leaf sheaths. Crownshaft absent. Leaves fan-shaped and with a short midrib, to 1 m wide, deeply divided. Leaf stalks without teeth or spines. Leaflets 3 ribbed, to 4 cm wide, narrow, stiff, dark green, folded upwards. Flowers unisexual, the sexes on the same or different plants, red. Panicles short, arising among the leaves. Fruit small, round to ovoid, brown, to 2 cm long, woolly, 1-seeded.
North America
Grows in infertile sand in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, sometimes forming thickets. Some plants remain open, others are very dense.
Short clustering fan palm; since it is partly creeping may be confused with Sabal minor or Serenoa repens, but easily distinguished in having trunks with long, black, needle-like spines.
NSW: Sydney (Royal Botanic Garden Sydney).
Source: (2005). Arecaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.