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Pink ivory

Phyllogeiton zeyheri

Pink ivory
Photo: JMK, CC BY-SA 3.0

Pink ivory (Phyllogeiton zeyheri) is a small African tree in the buckthorn family, valued for its extremely dense, hard wood used in billiard cues and knife handles. It is rarely grown as a garden plant, and it is protected in South Africa.

Family
Rhamnaceae (Rhamn family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while young, then allow the top of the soil to dry between waterings.
Soil
Free-draining, fertile soil or a loam-based mix.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
S. Trop. & S. Africa
Climate
subtropical

About

Pink ivory (Phyllogeiton zeyheri), also called red ivory, purple ivory, unnini or umgoloti, is an African hardwood used to make a variety of products (for example: billiard cues and knife handles). The pink ivory tree grows predominantly in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Northern Botswana and South Africa. The tree is protected and sustainably maintained in South Africa, only felled by very limited permit. The wood is extremely hard, with a density of 990 g/dm3.

Other Phyllogeiton plants

Birdplum

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pink ivory by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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