Prionium serratum, the palmiet, is a robust, evergreen, semiaquatic, rhizomatous flowering plant growing to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height.

The strap-like lanceolate leaves are rigid, with a high silica content, narrow, leathery, grey-green, and with toothed margins.

[3][4] The net-like, black fibrous, reticulate leaf sheaths are often found on beaches near rivers with colonies of palmiet (see Gallery).

This species has a disjunct distribution along the southern and south-eastern seaboard from the Western Cape to KwaZulu-Natal on sandstone substrates, growing in dense mats in marshy areas, and in and along streams and rivers.

[5] The name wilde palmit was used by Jan van Riebeeck for this plant, doubtless because of its close resemblance to palmito and the palmettos, and it was first noted by the Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg in about 1772.