Foxtail palm is thornless and has a slender, closely ringed bottle shaped to columnar trunk that grows up to 30 ft tall. It bears white blossoms of both sexes at the base of its crown, and a single palm is capable of producing fertile seeds. Shaped like the tail of a fox, the tip has seeds arranged in spikey clusters with backward-facing barbs. The spikes and barbs allow for one-way burrowing, which is great news for the foxtail but bad news for dogs.