Phytelephas Species, Ivory Nut Palm, Panama Ivory Palm, Sago, Tagua Nut Palm

This solitary trunked species of Panama, Colombia and Ecuador is one of the several sources for Ivory Nut, or Tagua, the hard seed of the...Read More palm (used primarily for decorative carving). This species, though developing a trunk up to 20 or more feet, never really gets any taller than 10-12' as the trunks creep along the ground, not up in the air. It has a huge head of leaves that are long and arched, with leaflets arranged in a flat plane, also long and arching. This is a highly tropical palm and all attempts to grow it in southern California have failed miserably.