Plants palm trees 20-40 m tall. Petioles long, triangular in cross-section, armed with shapr, spreading spines 7-19 mm long; leaflets numerous, about 80 cm long and 4-4.5 cm wide. Inflorescences uo to 2 m long, tomentose, pedunculate. Flowers bisexual, about 2 mm long, tomentose with branched hairs; inner tepals much longer than the outer. Fruits more or less globose, about 6 mm in diameter, brownish, glabrous.
Livistona carinensis grows along wadis or near springs at 540-1075 m. It is known from Djibouti, Yemen, Somaliland, and Puntland (Somalia).
In 1995, only 11 trees of Livistona carinensis were known from Puntland and it may now be extinct there, trees having been harvested for house contruction, drain pipes and seedlings having been grazed or used for mats and baskets before they were able to mature.