Ivory Palms – Ivory Nut Palms – Tagua Palms
There are six known species of Ivory Palms, sometimes called Ivory Nut Palms or Tagua Palms (genus – Phytelephas.) They can be found from southern Panama along the Andes Mountains to Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Peru and northwestern Brazil. They are called ivory palms or ivory nut palms due to the extremely hard white endosperm of their seeds, which is very much like elephant ivory. These are also called tagua nuts or jarina seeds.
Given animal welfare concerns with hunting elephant and the resulting trade restrictions in elephant ivory, ivory palm endosperms are often used as substitutes for elephant ivory today, and traded as vegetable ivory, palm ivory, corozo or tagua. When dried out, it can be carved just like elephant ivory; it is often used for beads, buttons, figurines and jewelry, and can be dyed.
Palm ivory stimulates local economies in South America, provides an alternative to cutting down rain forests for farming, and prevents elephants from being killed for the ivory in their tusks.
The six species of ivory palm are:
Phytelephas aequatorialis – Ecuadorean Ivory Palm – Ecuador
Phytelephas macrocarpa – Large-Fruited Ivory Palm – northwestern Brazil, Bolivia, Peru
Phytelephas schottii – Colombian Ivory Palm – Colombia
Phytelephas seemannii – Colombia, Panama
Phytelephas tenuicaulis – Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Phytelephas tumacana – Nariño region of Colombia