 This taxon was first scientifically described in 1826 as "Cocos capitata" in the Historia Naturalis Palmarum by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, who described and illustrated the palm from sketches and herbarium collections he made on montane grasslands near the Serra de Santo Antônio, Minas Gerais.In 1970 Sidney Fredrick Glassman moved this species, along with all other "Butia", to "Syagrus", but in 1979 he changed his mind and moved everything back.The fruits are locally harvested from the wild between November and February to make juices, liquor, marmalades and ice-cream.