Stem 5–15 m tall, strongly ventricose, most slender above the swelling, gray, with prominent leaf scars when young. Leaves about 24 in the crown, spreading; leaf 2–3 m long; sheath 34–49 cm long, green with silvery gray scales near the apex; petiole 11–30 cm long; rachis 270 cm long, often with brown scales along its margin; leaf segments 115–131 per one side of the rachis; middle leaf segment 53–83 cm long, 1.7–3.1 cm wide, lanceolate with an acuminate tip, gray-green, glaucous abaxially, glaucous to glossy adaxially, ramenta present on the abaxial surface of the midvein at the base of the leaf segment. Inflorescence erect, ascending or arching, branched to 2 or 3 orders, about 125 cm long; peduncle down-curved, extending well beyond the leaf bases, glabrous; prophyll 102–156 cm long, about 8 cm wide, bearing dark brown scales along both edges (keels); inner bract about 50 cm long, bearing dark brown scales along both edges; rachillae 12.0–19.5 cm long and 1.5–2.6 mm in diam., directed toward the apex of the inflorescence. Flower pseudopedicel (0.8–)2.5–4.4 mm long, 0.8–1.5 mm in diam., green to glaucous; calyx a shallow triangular cupule, 3.1–5.9 mm in diam., green to glaucous, margins hyaline; petals ovate, 6.4–8.9 mm long, 4.6–5.8 mm wide, green, glaucous abaxially, spreading, with about 24 major veins; filaments 4.2–5.1 mm long, basally connate forming a short staminal tube, anthers ovoid, 5.1–6.1 mm long, 2.4–2.9 mm wide, yellow; gynoecium (in bisexual flowers) 4.4–6.1 mm long, 2.5–3.7 mm in diam. (pistillode in staminate flowers smaller), green. Fruit 17.6–23.7 mm long, 16.2–20.2 mm in diam. (in single-seeded fruits); endocarp 15.2–16.9 mm long, 13.9–16.0 mm in diam., 0.2–0.4 mm thick. Seed 11.1–14.7 mm long, 10.6–14.5 mm in diam. (S. Zona. 2002)/Palmweb.

Pseudophoenix vinifera is distinguished from its congeners by its strongly bottle-shaped stem at maturity, its distally directed rachillae and its triangular calyx. In gross appearance, it most closely resembles P. ekmanii, but in aspects of the inflorescence, flower and fruit, it resembles P. lediniana. (S. Zona. 2002)/Palmweb.