[Native name in Colombia.] The ivory-palm, Phytelephas macrocarpa, which produces the ivory-nut or corozo-nut; also in Comb., as tagua-nut, -palm, -plant.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 285. Buttons are turned from the hard albumen of Phytelephas, or the Tagua plant.
1883. Jago, in Knowledge, July, 52/1. Cellulose … occurs in an approximately pure state in the ‘tagua-nut.’
1901. Keane, S. Amer., I. 132. The tagua, whose melon-shaped pods contain the hard grains known as Vegetable Ivory.
