Habit: shrubs or palm-like trees, rarely subherbaceous with underground stems and fernlike leaves
Leaves: alternate, forming a dense rosette; pinnate (rarely bipinnate), sometimes with circinate vernation; leaf bases persistent and woody
Pollen: in strobili or cones; cones large with many spirally arranged scales.
Ovules: in cones (Zamiaceae) or on margins of reduced leaves (Cycadaceae); cones large or small with many spirally arranged peltate scales (Zamiaceae) or on sporophylls (Cycadaceae).