The specific name "bifurcata" is from Latin meaning “divided into two parts”, in reference to the forking ("bifurcate") fibres covering the seeds.

It grows a single, double, or triple trunk that is slightly spindle-shaped to columnar reaching heights of about 10 m (30 ft).

The trunk also has a closely ringed, dark grey to light gray color which slowly turns more and more white.

It was described in 1978, and was classed as a rare palm, both within Queensland, and on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species.

[2] After it became known to the world, the Foxtail Palm's seeds were so highly sought after that a thriving black market trade formed, with illegal collectors nearly decimating the in situ populations.