The unusual one-seeded fruits are covered with numerous shiny brown scales and superficially resemble a closed pine cone. Seeds, jewelry and carvings from this palm are available from Island Palm Products . It typically grows under large rain forest trees along streams and on wet hillsides. Large pinnate leaves up to 20 feet tall arise from a woody trunk that is often leaning or growing from a longer horizontal trunk above the moist ground. Like cottonwoods, willows, marijuana and people, ivory-nut palms are dioecious, with separate male and female individuals.
Female palms bear clusters of large, brown fruits, the size of grapefruits or melons.
Each fruit is studded with numerous woody, pointed horns and contains four or more large seeds. Mature, dry seeds are so hard that it requires a hacksaw to cut one in half. Although the heavy seeds typically sink in water, some become buoyant due to internal cavities from endosperm decay. These buoyant seeds are washed downstream by torrential rains, eventually ending up in the Atlantic Ocean where they may drift to Caribbean Islands and beaches of the southeastern United States. The seeds are an important source of vegetable ivory, a hard, hemicellulose substance used in carvings and scrimshaw.