It features leptocauly (slender primary stem with many branches).

[1] The species is only known to exist on the island of Guam, where it can be found in mixed forests, coconut plantations and on limestone.

[2] It is most similar to Rhaphidophora spathacea from New Guinea and the Caroline Islands but has several distinguishing features.

[3] The first herbarium specimen was collected from Mount Lamlam by Donald Anderson in 1949 for the Pacific Vegetation Project,[4][5] later by Benjamin Stone (1962)[6][7] and A. Rinehart (1987),[8] labeled only as "Rhaphidophora."

It was eventually described in detail and named Rhaphidophora guamensis by the British botanist, Peter C. Boyce in 2001 in The Gardens' Bulletin (Singapore).