The leaf sheaths are extended, forming a distinct green crownshaft; the small rachis bears widely spaced, acute leaflets, slightly offset and taper to a point.

[3] Odoardo Beccari first collected the palm in Indonesian New Guinea in 1872 assigning it to the genus Ptychosperma under the epithet micranthum, Latin for "small flower".

The leaf tips were not jagged like most in the genus and, eleven years later, was moved to Rhopaloblaste by Sir Joseph Hooker, then director of the Kew gardens.

In 1970, palm scientist Harold E. Moore analyzed Beccari's collection, and despite bearing a crownshaft, reclassified it as a member of Heterospathe, a non-crownshafted genus.

Finally, in 2006, DNA tests revealed the plant matched no known genera; it was named for John Dransfield by his contemporaries to honor his long study of the family.