The tensile mechanical properties of piassava fibers, as well as their chemical composition and morphological aspects, are reported. The values obtained showed that piassava has a mechanical behavior and chemical composition comparable to that of coir fibers. The difficulties related with a reliable way of measuring the true elastic modulus of these slender fibers are discussed and a simple correction of the experimental data is presented. As main characteristic surface features piassava fibers present a well arranged pattern of silicon rich star-like protrusions. Its chemical composition reveals that piassava are lignin rich fibers, 48.4 wt%. X-ray diffraction showed that cellulose I is their main crystalline constituent. Their thermal degradation begins at 225 °C, and the whole thermal degradation behavior of piassava fibers has many aspects, like the initial water loss and the content of residues, close to that shown by pure lignin.