The generic name combines leuco (in reference to the whitish colour of its flowering stalks and the undersides of its leaves)[5] with thrinax.

[6] In Anguilla it is called the "broom palm" or "buffalo-top", in The Bahamas, miraguano in Cuba and palma de escoba in Puerto Rico.

[6] Leucothrinax morrisii is a palmate-leaved palm with solitary brown or grey stems[6] 1–11 metres (3–36 ft) tall and 5–35 centimetres (2–14 in) in diameter.

[7] In the Florida Keys it grows at the edge of hardwood hammocks and in pinelands, while in Puerto Rico, it is found on cliffs and on limestone and ultramafic ridges.

In the first edition of Genera Palmarum (1987), Natalie Uhl and John Dransfield placed the genus Thrinax in the subfamily Coryphoideae, the tribe Corypheae and the subtribe Thrinacinae[10] using Harold E. Moore's 1973 classification of the palm family.

[12] A study of the phylogenetic relationships among Caribbean palms showed that the species then known as Thrinax morrisii was most closely related to Coccothrinax, Hemithrinax and Zombia, with the remainder of the genus Thinax being a sister group to this clade.