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, native to northeastern New South Wales and central and southeastern Queensland specifically. Two species of the genus are commercially important for their fruit, the macadamia nut /ˌmækəˈdeɪmiə/ (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, bauple nut and, in the US, they are also known as Hawaii nut.[4] It was an important source of bushfood for the Aboriginal peoples.

Fresh macadamia nut with husk or pericarp cut in half
Macadamia nut in its shell and a roasted nut
Macadamia nut with sawn nutshell and special key used to pry open the nut

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.

  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. 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.