It's a NUT

Tagua is a unique vegetable. Grown primarily in Ecuador and Colombia, the nuts of this palm tree form in large clusters and hang much like a coconut. These clusters then fall to the ground or are cut from the tree. Each cluster contains many tagua nuts that are about the size of a potato.

When they initially are harvested, the inside of these nuts have a very gelatinous texture and are semi-transparent. The nuts are then dried for up to 4 weeks where this gelatinous material hardens and takes on the properties of ivory.

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Tagua is known as vegetable ivory because it has the same properties as animal ivory. Many of the counterfeit ivory in the world is actually tagua. The benefit to this is animals are not killed for their ivory tusks. Also, as it is a fruit of a tree, they naturally regenerate. No trees are harmed and the rainforests in which they grow are preserved for economic prosperity among natives who are employed harvesting, carving and exporting the material.