Plant
Macadamia
Macadamia integrifolia
Also known as: Macadamia integrifolia, Queensland nut, bauple nut
An evergreen rainforest tree native to subtropical eastern Australia, producing the hardest-shelled commercial nut in the world. One of very few globally important crops domesticated from Australian flora — though commercial cultivation took off in Hawaii in the early 20th century before returning to its homeland. Australia, South Africa, and Hawaii lead production; the species' wild populations are restricted to small patches of subtropical rainforest in Queensland and northern New South Wales and are conservation-listed.
Scientific
Macadamia integrifolia is in family Proteaceae (the same family as protea, banksia, and grevillea — characteristic of Gondwanan flora). Trees reach 12–15 m with whorled leathery leaves and pendulous racemes of small cream flowers. The fruit is a follicle that splits to drop a spherical nut with an extraordinarily hard woody shell — requiring 300+ psi of pressure to crack, harder than any other commercial nut shell. Macadamia tetraphylla and several hybrids are also cultivated. The genus also contains species whose nuts are toxic to humans — only M. integrifolia and M. tetraphylla are edible.
Cultural
Indigenous Australians of the Bundjalung and other coastal nations harvested macadamia (called bauple, jindilli, boombera in various languages) as a long-stored, calorically dense seasonal food, cracked with hammerstones. European colonists named the genus in 1857 after chemist John Macadam. Commercial cultivation began in Hawaii in the 1920s — Hawaii dominated global supply for most of the 20th century before Australia rebuilt its own industry from the 1970s onward.
Global production
Australia, South Africa, and the U.S. (Hawaii) lead global production, with Kenya, China, and Brazil expanding. The wild Australian populations are small and fragmented; M. integrifolia is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and subject to ongoing conservation work by the Macadamia Conservation Trust.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: [[pecan]]
- Member of: [[plants]]
Sources
- IUCN Red List — Macadamia integrifolia
- Macadamia Conservation Trust (Australia)
- Wikipedia — Macadamia
A plant entry in the 0mn1.one [[directory]].
What links here, and how
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Scientific
demonstrated by
- Gondwanan flora Macadamia (Proteaceae) is a classic Gondwanan-Australian relict; the family connects Australian Banksias, South African Proteas, and South American Embothriums
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