vegetable ivory tree
noun1
A tropical South American palm, Phytelephas macrocarpa, whose seed is used as a substitute for ivory; the tagua palm.
- The vegetation had again changed, and only the vegetable ivory tree remained, with a great profusion of wonderful orchids, among which I learned to recognize the rare Nuttonia Vexillaria and the glorious pink and scarlet blossoms of Cattleya and odontoglossum.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC: