Macadamia

Macadamia
Macadamia nuts
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Subfamily: Grevilleoideae
Tribe: Macadamieae
Subtribe: Macadamiinae
Genus: Macadamia
F.Muell.
Type species
Macadamia integrifolia
Species

Macadamia is a genus of four species of trees in the flowering plant family Proteaceae.[1][2] They are indigenous to Australia - specifically, northeastern New South Wales and central and southeastern Queensland. Two species of the genus are commercially important for their fruit, the macadamia nut /ˌmækəˈdmiə/ (or simply macadamia). Global production in 2015 was 160,000 tonnes (180,000 short tons).[3] Other names include Queensland nut, bush nut, maroochi nut or bauple nut.[4] It was an important source of bushfood for the Aboriginal peoples.

Fresh macadamia nut with husk or pericarp cut in half
Stages of a Macadamia integrifolia nut: unripe, ripe, husk peeled, deshelled
Roasted macadamia nuts with sawn nutshell, one cracked open

The nut was first commercially produced on a wide scale in Hawaii, where Australian seeds were introduced in the 1880s, and for more than a century they were the world's largest producer.[5][6] South Africa has been the world's largest producer of the macadamia since the 2010s.

The macadamia is the only widely grown food plant that is native to Australia.[7]

  1. ^ "Macadamia". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI). Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  2. ^ Mast, Austin R.; Willis, Crystal L.; Jones, Eric H.; Downs, Katherine M.; Weston, Peter H. (July 2008). "A smaller Macadamia from a more vagile tribe: inference of phylogenetic relationships, divergence times, and diaspore evolution in Macadamia and relatives (tribe Macadamieae; Proteaceae)". American Journal of Botany. 95 (#7): 843–870. Bibcode:2008AmJB...95..843M. doi:10.3732/ajb.0700006. ISSN 1537-2197. PMID 21632410.
  3. ^ "South Africa becomes king of macadamia nuts again". FreshPlaza. 14 April 2015. Archived from the original on 10 October 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  4. ^ "The Bopple Nut" (PDF). Bauple Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  5. ^ Kean, Zoe (12 December 2020). "In a nutshell: how the macadamia became a 'vulnerable' species". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  6. ^ Shigeura, Gordon T.; Ooka, Hiroshi (April 1984). Macadamia nuts in Hawaii: History and production (PDF). Research extension series. University of Hawaii. College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. ISSN 0271-9916. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Australian plants can be new food crops for sustainable agricultural systems". 8 February 2024.

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