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Phytelephas is a genus containing six known species of dioecious Arecaceae (family Arecaceae), occurring from southern Panama along the Andes to Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, northwestern Brazil, and Peru.Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. They are commonly known as ivory palms, ivory-nut palms or tagua palms (); the scientific name Phytelephas means "plant ivory" or more literally, "plant elephant". This and the first two of the common names refer to the very hard white endosperm of their seeds ( tagua nuts or jarina seeds), which resembles ivory. Vegetable ivory: saving elephants and the rain forest
Vegetable ivory stimulates local economies in South America, provides an alternative to cutting down for farming, and prevents elephants from being killed for the ivory in their tusks.
In Ecuador, the Ecuadorean ivory palm ( P. aequatorialis) is the species whose kernels are widely harvested. The large-fruited ivory palm ( P. macrocarpa) is the ivory palm native to Brazil, and most internationally traded palm ivory is derived from this species. The Colombian ivory palm ( P. schottii) and P. tenuicaulis, both formerly included in P. macrocarpa, are the usual source of the product in Colombia. The other two species are quite rare and have a restricted range; they are not used for tagua production on a significant scale.
The kernels are picked up from the ground after the ripe fruit has detached from the tree and forest animals have taken care of the Fruit anatomy, or harvested when ripe and the pericarp manually removed. As the nut shrinks when it hardens, a small hollow cavity can form in the center. It is often not possible to know whether the inside of the nut will have a small cavity in the center until it is cut into. Therefore, when carving, it is common to either incorporate the hole or cavity into carvings or not carve deep enough to reach a potential cavity.
In their native range, these palms are also used as a source of food and construction wood.
List of species
The following species are recognized:
Ecuador northwestern Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia Ecuador Colombia Colombia, Panama Colombia, Ecuador, Peru Nariño Department of Colombia
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