Phytelephas macrocarpa is a single-stemmed, unarmed, reclining or erect palm from the extreme northern coastal regions of South America, growing to some 12 m tall.

The closely related Ammandra decasperma from Colombia, and Aphandra natalia from Ecuador, are also sources of vegetable ivory, but of inferior quality and therefore not commercially significant.

The outer husk is thick and woody with numerous sharp spines; the mesocarp is thin, fleshy, oily and yellowish-orange in colour.

Each fruit houses 5 or 6 seeds of about 5 × 3 cm, these normally being wedge-shaped, though quite variable in both size and shape; the endosperm is homogeneous, and liquid at first, becoming gelatinous later and finally extremely hard, white and ivory-like, occasionally with a small central cavity.

All species prefer humid and shady areas, and rainfall exceeding 2,500 mm per year, though P. macrocarpa is also found on dry, steep slopes in northeastern Colombia.

When ripe, the fruit which has formed on the female tree, breaks apart and the woody epicarp covered in spines disintegrates, allowing the nuts to fall to the ground.

The industry never became extinct, however, and survived in Riobamba in Ecuador and in Chiquinquirá in Colombia, as a minor business producing souvenirs, and exporting to Japan, West Germany, and Italy.

Profits are invested in conservation and sustainable development programs in tagua production regions - these being the Santiago River basin in Ecuador, and the Pacific coast of NW Colombia.

Large weevil larvae, similar and perhaps identical to Rhynchophorus palmarum, tunnel into the stems of tagua and are the vectors of a nematode, Bursaphelenchus cocophilus, afflicting cultivated palms.