[3] It was first collected by the Swiss physician and botanist Émile Hassler in Paraguay in the Sierra de Mbaracayú between 1898 and 1899, and in Piribebuy in 1900, according to the labels on his herbarium specimens.

[6] The species was rediscovered that same year by Belen Jiménez in one of the areas it was first collected, in the grasslands of the Aguara Ñu in what was by now the Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve; this was published in 1998.

[7] Actually the palms had already been collected earlier in 1995 and 1996 in San Pedro Department in Paraguay, but these specimens were only recognised as such by Henderson in 1999, and this information was first published 2000.

Similarly, in 1987 an abundant population of subterranean-trunked palms had been recorded and collected in Porto Murtinho, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, 57 km east of the capital.

[13] The entire plant is less than 1m in height, often less,[4][14] the thin, glaucous leaflets and invisible trunk make it most resemble a tuft of blueish-grey grass, and it is easily overlooked.

[1] The oval to round fruit are 1.8 × 1.5 cm and greenish-purple to brown (when exposed to the elements), with sweet-sour, yellow flesh and almost always a single roundish seed.

[11] Deble et al. in 2006 compare it to B. lallemantii; noting it is much smaller, branches much less often and less when it does, and has different shaped and coloured fruit.

[13] According to Soares in 2015 it can be distinguished from all other acaulescent Butia species which possess an inflorescence passing beyond the length of the spathe, by having the longest leaf rachis.

[8][9][10][12][15] It grows in open, sandy spots in cerrado grasslands,[4] often in gently sloping areas with deep red sand soils.

[15] It is found growing associated with the palms Butia paraguayensis, Syagrus lilliputiana and Allagoptera leucocalyx in Mbaracayú, Paraguay.

[20] In Nova Odessa (see climate), Brazil, Lorenzi grows his palms on large mounds of loose sandy material.

[21] Gauto et al. in 2011 considered it to be 'vulnerable' in Paraguay, using the criteria "extent of occurrence estimated to be less than 100km2 indicated by severely fragmented habitat or known to exist at only a single location.