Stems aerial, 20--35 cm diam. Leaves 10--30, strongly costapalmate; hastula acute to acuminate, 9.5--15.5 cm; segments filiferous, 80--145 ´ 3.2--5.3 cm; apices bifid2-cleft. Inflorescences with 3 orders of branching (not counting main inflorescence axis), arching, about ± as long as leaves. Flowers 3.7--6.5 mm. Fruits black, oblate- spheroid, length 13.8--17 mm, diam. diam. 14.8--19.3 mm. diam.. Seeds 5.4--7.4 mm, diam. 8.6--13.3 mm diam. 2n = 36.

Flowering spring--summer (all year in southern part of range). Mesic hammocks, floodplains, levees, river banks, swamps; 0--50 m; Tex.; Mexico; Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua).

L. Lockett (1991) suggested that Hhybridization between Sabal mexicana and S. minor is possibly evidenced by a small population of caulescent palms in Brazoria County, Texas (L. Lockett 1991). Further research is needed to test this hypothesis.