[4][6][8] The sparse crown has 5 to 10 paripinnate fronds measuring up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in length, with up to 20 praemorse pinnae (leaflets), on either side of the slightly arching rachis (midrib).

The inflorescence emerges from the trunk at the base of the crownshaft[5] and resembles a cat o' nine tails, having 10–20 straight spikes around 20 cm (7.9 in) long.

[6] The species was first described as Kentia wendlandiana in 1870 by the German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in his work Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.

[5][9] The species epithet wendlandiana is in honour of the German botanist Hermann Wendland who was a noted authority on Arecaceae.

[5] Wendland's palm is found throughout New Guinea and the Aru Islands, and in the northernmost parts of the Northern Territory (from Bathurst Island, Melville Island and Croker Island, across the Top End to Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria), and then into Queensland from Cape York Peninsula down the east coast to Mission Beach, where it grows on various soil types in rainforest, monsoon forest and swamp forest, often in or close to swamps, at altitudes from sea level to 200 m (660 ft).