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.
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Famous quotes containing the words vegetable and/or ivory:
“A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“And ivory and bright gold,
polished and lustrous grow faint
beside that wondrous flesh
and print of her foot-hold.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)