What is "vegetable ivory"

Ivory \I"vo*ry\ ([imac]"v[-o]*r[y^]), n.; pl. Ivories. [OE. ivori, F. ivoire, fr. L. eboreus made of ivory, fr. ebur, eboris, ivory, cf. Skr. ibha elephant. Cf. Eburnean.]

1. The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility.

   Note: Ivory is the name commercially given not only to the substance constituting the tusks of the elephant, but also to that of the tusks of the hippopotamus and walrus, the hornlike tusk of the narwhal, etc.

2. The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc.

3. Any carving executed in ivory.
   --Mollett.

4. pl. Teeth; as, to show one's ivories. [Slang]

   Ivory black. See under Black, n.

   Ivory gull (Zo["o]l.), a white Arctic gull ( Larus eburneus).

   Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the seed contains a fluid, which gradually hardness into a whitish, close-grained, albuminous substance, resembling the finest ivory in texture and color, whence it is called vegetable ivory. It is wrought into various articles, as buttons, chessmen, etc. The palm is found in New Grenada. A smaller kind is the fruit of the Phytephas microarpa. The nuts are known in commerce as Corosso nuts.

   Ivory palm (Bot.), the palm tree which produces ivory nuts.

   Ivory shell (Zo["o]l.), any species of Eburna, a genus of marine gastropod shells, having a smooth surface, usually white with red or brown spots.

   Vegetable ivory, the meat of the ivory nut. See Ivory nut (above).

n. The nutlike seed of the South American tagua palm; used to make small items such as buttons.

n. nutlike seed of a South American palm; the hard white shell takes a high polish and is used for e.g. buttons [syn: ivory nut, apple nut]

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 elephant ivory. Species in the genus Phytelephas, native to South America, are the most important sources of vegetable ivory. The seeds of Metroxylon amicarum, from Micronesia, and Hyphaene ventricosa, from Africa, are also used to produce vegetable ivory.

The material is called Corozo when used in buttons.