This very slow growing palm, and is the smallest palm from the Copernicia genus. It has a single trunk and large, flat, fan shaped leaves, with waxy, stiff, green fronds, that are whitish underneath, and the dead leaves form a skirt below the crown. Erect trunk, usually no taller than 2.5 m. Very short petioles. Leaf lamina is rigid and rounded, and has a grey and waxy underside. Leaflets with unarmed margins and blunt apex. The dead fronds persist and hang as a curtain covering much of the trunk. Black fruits.