The old stems of Hyphaene petersiana where the leaf remains have dropped off display these deep horizontal grooves. While one clump of the stems produces a dense tangle of leafy crowns, the stems do not branch, each bearing just one cluster of leaves at its tip. The northern lala palm typically grows to 6 m, occasionally to 18 m (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997).