Macadamia

Macadamia
Macadamia integrifolia foliage and nuts
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae (unranked) Eudicots Order: Proteales Family: Proteaceae Genus: Macadamia F.Muell.
Species
Macadamia claudiensis Macadamia grandis Macadamia hildebrandii Macadamia integrifolia Macadamia jansenii Macadamia ternifolia Macadamia tetraphylla Macadamia whelanii Macadamia neurophylla

Macadamia is the genus name and common name for various slow-growing tropical evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Proteacea, and in particular the commercially important Macadamia integrifolia and M. tetraphylla of Australia. The name also is used for the extremely hard-shelled, nearly round nut of these trees or the edible, round seeds contained in the nuts. Other common names for the fruit, in addition to macadamia and macadamia nut, include Queensland nut, Bush nut, Maroochi nut, and bauple nut.

There are nine species in the Macadamia genus, with a disjunct distribution native to eastern Australia (seven species), New Caledonia (one species [M. neurophylla]), and Sulawesi in Indonesia (one species, M. hildebrandii). Although originating in Australia, M. integrefolia, with its smooth-shelled nuts, and 'M. tetraphylla, with its rough-shelled nuts, are now major commercial crops of Hawaii. Some of the nuts of other species of the genus do require processing to be edible.

exotic nuts rich flavor oil delicacies dessert nuts

Description

Proteaceae, the family to which Macadamia belongs, is a taxon of flowering plants in the order Proteales. Mainly restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, it is a fairly large family, with around 80 genera but fewer than 2000 species.

Macadamia nut in its shell and a roasted nut

Members of Macadamia are small to large evergreen trees growing to 2 to 12 meters (6 to 40 feet) tall. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to six, land are anceolate to obovate or elliptical in shape, 6 to 30 centimeters (2.4-12 inches) long and 2 to 13 centimeters (0.8-5 inches) broad, with an entire or spiny-serrated margin. The flowers are produced in a long slender simple raceme, 5 to 30 centimeters (2-12 inches) long. The individual flowers are 10 to 15 millimeters (0.4-0.6 inches) long, white to pink or purple, with four tepals. The fruit is a very hard woody globose follicle with a pointed apex, containing one or two seeds.

Macadamia integrifolia flowers

The trees have long been known and used by the native Australian aborigines, who consumed the nuts in winter. The nuts were discovered in 1857 by British colonists in Queensland, Australia, and Walter Hill, Director of the Botany in Brisbane, used a vise to crack open one of the nuts, and planted the seed (with the tree still growing today). Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, the "father of Australian botany," had been traveling with Hill described the tree and named it after Scotsman John Macadam, a friend and physician, who died before ever tasting the nut that bears his name (Holmes 1994; Mueller 1857).

Indigenous Australian names for the tree include gyndl, jindilli, and boombera.

Cultivation and processing

The macadamia tree is usually propagated by grafting, and does not begin to produce commercial quantities of nuts until it is 7 to 10 years old. However, once established, a tree may continue bearing for over 100 years. Macadamias prefer fertile, well-drained soils, a rainfall of 1,000 to 2,000 millimeters, and temperatures not falling below 10°C (although once established they can withstand light frosts), with an optimum temperature of 25°C. The roots are shallow and trees can be blown down in storms; they are also susceptible to Phytophthora root disease.

The macadamia nut has an extremely hard shell, but can be cracked using a blunt instrument, such as a hammer or rock applied with some force to the nut sitting in a concave surface. In addition, a custom made macadamia nutcracker can be used. Nuts of the "Arkin Papershell" variety, crack open more readily.

Production

The nuts are a valuable food crop. Only two of the species, Macadamia integrifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla, are of commercial importance. The remainder of the genus possess poisonous and/or inedible nuts, such as M. whelanii and M. ternifolia; the toxicity is due to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides. These glycosides can be removed by prolonged leaching, a practice carried out by some Indigenous Australian people in order to use these species as well.

The two species of edible macadamia readily hybridize, and M. tetraphylla is threatened in the wild due to this. Wild nut trees were originally found at Mount Bauple near Maryborough in southeast Queensland, Australia. Locals in this area still refer to them as "bauple nuts."

The first commercial orchard of macadamia trees was planted in the early 1880s by Charles Staff at Rous Mill, 12 kilometers southeast of Lismore, New South Wales, consisting of M. tetraphylla (Power 1982). Besides the development of a small boutique industry in Australia during the late 19th and early 20th century, macadamia was extensively planted as a commercial crop in Hawaii. The macademia was brought from Australia to Hawaii in 1882 by William Herbert Purvis, who nurtured the seeds and planted them as seedlings in Kukuihaele, Hawaii (Holmes 1994). Over time, the world's largest manufacturer of macademia nuts became the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation in Hawaii, which founded the plantation in 1948 and had the first crop in 1956, with the trees planted on rich, volcanic soil (Holmes 1994). The Hawaiian-produced macadamia established the nut internationally. However, macadamia production is now falling in Hawaii, with nut production dropping to a 26-year low in 2008 due to bad weather and pests.

Outside of Hawaii and Australia, macadamia is also commercially produced in South Africa, Brazil, California, Costa Rica, Israel, Kenya, Bolivia, New Zealand, and Malawi. Australia is now the world's largest commercial producer—at approximately 40,000 metric tons of nut in shell per year, with a total global production of 100,000 metric tons.

Chocolate-covered macadamia nuts

Uses

Food

Macadamias are highly nutritious nuts. They have the highest amount of beneficial monosaturated fats of any nut. They also contain 9% protein, 9% carbohydrate, 2% dietary fibre, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, selenium, iron, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin.

Oil

Macadamia oil is prized for containing approximately 22% of the Omega-7 palmitoleic acid, which makes it a botanical alternative to mink oil, which contains approximately 17%. This relatively high content of "cushiony" palmitoleic acid plus macadamia's high oxidative stability make it a desirable ingredient in cosmetics, especially skincare.

History

• For thousands of years before European settlement the aborigines ate the native nut that grew in rainforests of eastern Australia. One of these nuts was called gyndl or jindilli (Macadmaia integrifolia), which was later corrupted to kindal kindal by early Europeans. In New South Wales, the southern species is known traditionally as boombera (Macadamia tetraphylla).

• 1828 - Allan Cunningham is the first European to discover the macadamia plant.

• 1857 - British botanist Ferdinand von Mueller gave the genus the scientific name Macadamia - named after von Mueller’s friend Dr.John MacAdam, a noted scientist and secretary to the Philosophical Institute of Australia.

• 1858 - Walter Hill, Superintendent of the Brisbane Botanical Gardens, observes a boy eating the nut without ill effect, becoming the first non-indigenous person recorded to eat Macadamia.

• 1860s - King Jacky, Aboriginal elder of the Logan River clan, south of Brisbane, Queensland, is the first known macadamia nut entrepreneur as he and his tribe regularly collect and trade the nuts with settlers.

• 1881 - William H. Purvis introduces macadamia nuts to Hawaii as a windbreak for sugar cane.

• 1882 - First commercial orchard of macadamia nuts planted at Rous Mill, 12km from Lismore, by Charles Staff.

• 1889 - Joseph Maiden, Australian botanist, wrote "It is well worth extensive cultivation, for the nuts are always eagerly bought."

• 1910 - Hawaiian Agricultural Experiment Station encourages planting of macadamia on Hawaii's Kona coast, as a crop to supplement coffee production in the region.

• 1922 - Ernst Van Tassel formed the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Co in Hawai‘i.

• 1925 - Tassel leases 75 acres on Round Top in Honolulu (Nut Ridge) and begins a macadamia nut orchard, Hawaii's first macadamia nut farm.

• 1931 - Ernest Van Tassel establishes a macadamia nut processing factory on Puhukaina Street in Kakaako; nuts sold as Van's macadamia nuts.

• 1937 - W.W. Jones and J.H. Beaumont reports in "Science," the first successful grafting of macadamia nuts that paved the way for mass production.

• 1940s - Steve Angus, Murwillumbah, Australia, forms Macadamia Nuts Pty Ltd, doing small scale nut processing.

• 1953 - Castle and Cooke adds a new brand of macadamia nuts called "Royal Hawaiian," which is credited with popularizing the nuts in the U.S.

• 1964 - Macadamia Nuts Pty Ltd, opened Australia’s first purpose-built processing plant at Slacks Creek, near Brisbane, Queensland.

• 1997 - Australia surpasses the United States as the major producer of macadamia nuts.

• 2001 - Boo Yong Sia Estate planted 12,000 trees on 400 acres in the State of Johore, Malaysia.

• 2003 - Human nutrition research in Australia shows that macadamia nut lowers total and LDL cholesterol levels.

Trivia

• Macadamia nuts are often fed to Hyacinth Macaws in captivity. These large parrots are one of the few animals, aside from humans, capable of cracking and shelling the nut.

• Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs. Ingestion may result in macadamia nut toxicosis, which is marked by weakness with the inability to stand within 12 hours of ingestion. Recovery is usually within 48 hours.

• The trees are also grown as ornamental plants in subtropical regions for their glossy foliage and attractive flowers.

• Macadamia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Batrachedra arenosella.

• Macadamia nuts are often used by law enforcement to simulate crack cocaine in drug stings. When chopped, the nuts resemble crack cocaine in color.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Holmes, G. S. 1994. How is a macadamia nut made? In N. Schlager, How Products Are Made. Detroit, MI: Gale Research. ISBN 081038907X.

[http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/31009/all M. neurophylla

>Mueller, F.J.H. von (1857) Account of some New Australian Plants. Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria 2: 72 Type: Macadamia ternifolia F.Muell.[5]</ref>

External links

• Flora of Australia: Macadamia
• Template:APNI
• Australia's most delicious bush nut

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