''Attalea cohune'', commonly known as the cohune palm (also rain tree, American oil palm, corozo palm or manaca palm), is a species of

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...

native to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and parts of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. The cohune palm is used in the production of

cohune oil Cohune oil is pressed from the seeds of the cohune palm, which is native to Central and South America. Along with other byproducts of the palm, cohune oil is believed to have been used by cultures in southern Mesoamerica since the pre-Columbian ...

and its nut can be used as a variety of

vegetable ivory Vegetable ivory or tagua nut is a product made from the very hard white endosperm of the seeds of certain palm trees. Vegetable ivory is named for its resemblance to animal ivory. Species in the genus ''Phytelephas'' (literally "elephant plan ...

Example occurrences

A chief occurrence as a dominant plant is in the

Belizean pine forests Belizean may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belize, a Central American nation * Belizean people, people originating in Belize whether they live there or in the Belizean diaspora * Belizean population, see Demographics of Belize * Belizean ...

ecoregion.C. Michael Hogan & World Wildlife Fund. 2012
Belizean pine forests. ed. M. McGinley. Encyclopedia of Earth. Washington DC

References

cohune Plants described in 1844 Trees of Belize Trees of Campeche Trees of Chiapas Trees of Colima Trees of El Salvador Trees of Guatemala Trees of Honduras Trees of Jalisco Trees of Michoacán Trees of Oaxaca Trees of Quintana Roo Trees of Tabasco {{tree-stub