History Macadamia Nut

Botanist Walter Hill watched his young assistant in horror. The boy had just eaten nuts from the newly discovered species of the tree growing in the sub tropical rain forests of southeast Queensland, Australia. Hill had heard that the nut was poisonous. But the lad neither became ill nor dropped dead. Instead, he found the nuts to be delicious. So Hill tried one himself and agreed. Soon thereafter he began distributing macadamia seedlings to friends and botanist around the world. Years earlier, explorer Cunningham (1828) and Leichardt (1843) collected macadamia nuts, but their specimens were placed in storage and not described. In 1857, a colleague of Hill’s, Melbourne botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, named the genus Macadamia after his good friend Dr. John Macadam.

Today, some 150 years later, macadamia nuts are popular worldwide-and for food reason. The journal Chronica Horticulturae explains: “The macadamia is considered one of the world’s finest gourmet nuts because of its unique, delicate flovour, its fine crunchy texture, rich creamy colour.” Little wonder that macadamia nuts are Australia’s most successful indigenous food crop!