Pink Ivory (Berchemia zeyheri), also called Red Ivory, umNini or umGoloty, is a very rare African wood used to make luxury products (for example billiard cues and knives). The Pink Ivory tree grows predominantly in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. The wood is extremely hard, with a density of 990 g/dm³.
Pink Ivory is the royal tree of the Zulus because only the royal family were allowed to possess the wood. A legend was started in order to increase the value of the wood when sold overseas. The "legend" claimed that anyone else other than the Zulu royal family possessing the wood (including foreigners) was said to be punished with death.
Famous quotes containing the words pink and/or ivory:
“Among the pink and blue
Of the sky and the almond flowers
A sparrow flutters.
MWe have come through.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“We have fallen in the dreams the Ever-living
Breathe on the burnished mirror of the world
And then smooth out with ivory hands and sigh,
And find their laughter sweeter to the taste
For that brief sighing.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)