CHARACTERISTICS

It grows in the wild in places called “taguales”. The Tagua or vegetal ivory, is the cellulosic seed of the Phytelephas. It is white, hard, heavy, smooth and opaque but if you polish it, gets a nice shine. It is odorless and insipid, but is not elastic as the real ivory.

The tagua nut can be collected after 14 or 15 years the palm is planted. The palm can be harvested three times in the year. A palm not taller than 2 meters (6.6 feet) it is about 35 or 40 years old. They use to produce in a year about 15 to 16 heads, also known as “mocochas”. Each “mococha” have around 40 to 50 seeds