Vegetable ivory or

tagua nut ''Phytelephas'' is a genus containing six known species of dioecious Arecaceae, palms (family (biology), family Arecaceae), occurring from southern Panama along the Andes to Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, northwestern Brazil, and Peru. They are com ...

is a product made from the very hard white endosperm of the seeds of certain

palm trees Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm ( ...

. Vegetable ivory is named for its resemblance to animal ivory. Species in the genus ''

Phytelephas ''Phytelephas'' is a genus containing six known species of dioecious palms (family Arecaceae), occurring from southern Panama along the Andes to Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, northwestern Brazil, and Peru. They are commonly known as ivory palm ...

'' (literally "elephant plant"), native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, are the most important sources of vegetable ivory. The seeds of the Caroline ivory-nut palm from the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the ce ...

, natangura palm from

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

and

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

, and the real fan palm, from Sub-Saharan Africa, are also used to produce vegetable ivory. A tagua palm can take up to 15 years to mature. But once it gets to this stage it can go on producing vegetable ivory for up to 100 years. In any given year a tagua palm can produce up to 20 pounds of vegetable ivory. The material is called ''corozo'' or ''corosso'' when used in buttons.

Species

Some species from which vegetable ivory is harvested are: *''

Phytelephas macrocarpa ''Phytelephas macrocarpa'' is a single-stemmed, unarmed, reclining or erect palm from the extreme northern coastal regions of South America, growing to some 12 m tall. It has been introduced and cultivated in tropical regions all over the world. ...

'' (mainly in Peru and Bolivia) *''

Phytelephas aequatorialis The palm tree ''Phytelephas aequatorialis'', commonly known as Ecuadorian ivory palm, is the main source of Ecuadorean vegetable ivory or tagua, a botanical alternative to ivory. It is found in the tropical rainforests of the western Andean slop ...

'' (mainly in Ecuador) *''

Phytelephas seemannii ''Phytelephas seemannii'', commonly called Panama ivory palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae. It is one of the plants used for vegetable ivory. Names The species epithet ''seemannii'' honors botanist Berthold Carl See ...

'' (mainly in Colombia) *''

Phytelephas tenuicaulis ''Phytelephas tenuicaulis'' is a species of palm in the genus ''Phytelephas''. The compound leaves are around 7 meters in length, with stem diameters of 10 cm. Brown, ovulate fruits of about 6 cm are produced. Palms of the ''Phytel ...

Uses

An early use of vegetable ivory, attested from the 1880s, was the manufacture of

button A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole. In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, o ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

was a center of manufacturing where the buttons were "subjected to a treatment which is secret among the Rochester manufacturers", presumably improving their "beauty and wearing qualities". Before plastic became common in button production, about 20% of all buttons produced in the US were made of vegetable ivory. Vegetable ivory has been used extensively to make dice,

knife A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidence ...

handles, and chess pieces. It is a very hard and dense material. Similar to stone, it is too hard to carve with a knife but instead requires

hacksaw A hacksaw is a fine-toothed saw, originally and mainly made for cutting metal. The equivalent saw for cutting wood is usually called a bow saw. Most hacksaws are hand saws with a C-shaped walking frame that holds a blade under tension. Suc ...

s and files. Vegetable ivory is naturally white with a fine marbled grain structure. It can be dyed; dyeing often brings out the grain. It is still commonly used in buttons, jewelry, and artistic carving. Many vegetable ivory buttons were decorated in a way that used the natural tagua nut colour as a contrast to the dyed surface, because the dye did not penetrate deeper than the very first layer. This also helps identify the material.

References

{{Non-timber forest products, state=expanded Sculpture materials Ivory Handicrafts