Seed and buttons - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 76040 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 187.00 PALMAE Phytelephas aequatorialis | Entry Book Number | 52.1999 | |
| Artefact Name | Seed and buttons | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Ecuador | TDWG Region | Ecuador | ||
| Parts Held | Seed and buttons | Geography Description | Ecuador, Southern America, Western South America | ||
| Uses | Seed and buttonsUse: MATERIALS User: Man | TDWG use | MATERIALS | ||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | Sandell J (Wakehurst MSB) | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | 00/11/1999 | Donor Notes | Tagua Initiativex0Dx0A | ||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Seeds from the Tagua Initiative. There are several species of Phytelephas ranging from Panama as far south as the Peru Bolivia border. However, the species harvested in Ecuador, and the focus of the project is Phytelephas aequatorialis. As button makin, g material, tagua is quite successful and has been used to make buttons for over 100 years. Until the late 1980s and early 1990s, tague had virtually disappeared from the button market. It was very common to the period around WWII, when plastics became, much more common and cheaper than natural materials. The Tagua Project came around at a time when interest in the rainforests was growing, designers were looking for more natural materials, and were also looking for inexpensive ways to make their garme, nts look more stylish. Since tagua has retained an image as a classic material, it benefited from these and other trends. These seeds were supplied to The Millenium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place by the Tague Initiative (for interest) and were passed on by, Mrs. J Sandell (WP) to EBC. | ||||