piassava

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A fibrous product of two Brazilian palm trees (Attalea funifera and Leopoldinia piassaba), formerly used in making brooms and for other purposes.

   “Common brushes and brooms made of bristles, rice straw, piassava, and other animal or vegetable stuffs; also mounted with wood or iron, not colored, without polish or varnish:”

   “In Santa Cruz, for instance, where laborers are scarce and the means of communication bad, the gatherers of piassava are paid at the rate of from 2 to 3 milreis (the milreis is equivalent to about 30 cents) per arroba; [...]. The British syndicate above referred to uses [...] steel cleaves for cutting the piassava into uniform strips;”

   “Piassava Industry. At a recent meeting of the West African section of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce a letter was read from the colonial secretary of Gambia inclosing the following report on the development of the piassava industry ...”

   “The revised export-tariff schedule provides for Increased duties on palm kernels, palm oil, ginger, groundnuts, and piassava, and coffee, cocoa, benneseed, and kola nuts were made subject to export duties for the first time.”

2. (countable, uncountable)Either of these two trees.