Poorly studied and rarely cultivated, they are closely related to the genus Eremospatha and with it form a tribe in the Calameae characterized by dyads of hermaphrodite flowers.

The end of the rachis is modified for climbing, featuring double, recurved spines which hook onto forest vegetation.

[3][4] As hapaxanths, after a prolonged vegetative period, a brief flowering phase begins which results in the death of individual stems.

They simultaneously produce multiple inflorescences at the top of the trunk, long, once or twice-branched spikes with bisexual flowers.

Growing in the tropics of the Congo Basin and west Africa, the Laccosperma palms are found in Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Gabon.