Vegetable ivory 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.
Read more about Vegetable Ivory: Uses
Famous quotes containing the words vegetable and/or ivory:
“To stand on common ground
here and there gritty with pebbles
yet elsewhere ‘fine and mellow—
uncommon fine for ploughing’
there to labor
planting the vegetable words”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“We have fallen in the dreams the Ever-living
Breathe on the burnished mirror of the world
And then smooth out with ivory hands and sigh,
And find their laughter sweeter to the taste
For that brief sighing.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)