Endemic to the Mascarene Islands , while it will survive in poor dry soil, it loves water but also requires good drainage and will grow either in full sun or filtered light. This palm grows slow to moderate dependent on these conditions and is expected to grow to about 30 feet.

The new leaves are slow to unfold and remain in a thick needle like shoot before the leaflets unfurl revealing a beautifully full and mostly rounded leaf crown 15 feet wide and ten feet tall with the leaflets being held together by a fibrous strand that encircles the entire leaf joining the leaflets at their tips which in the past was a means of differentiating this palm from D. album.

**Recognized by the south Florida palm society as one of the ten best palms for south Florida**