The stems are erect or decumbent, growing to 1.5 m tall but most often less than a metre.

The leaves are pinnate, keeled, 60–100 cm long.

New fronds are glaucous blue at first, becoming dark yellow-green, moderately glossy above.

Megasporophylls are thickly covered in orange indumentum and the developing seeds have an intensely glaucous sarcotesta.

This cycad has a main distribution in sparse Eucalyptus savanna on skeletal soils over outcrops of rhyolite or basalt west of the Atherton Tableland in north-east Queensland.