Ancient Australians that need our help
Macadamias and Koalas diverged from most other flowering plants and mammals respectively over 100 million years ago.
Rescuing Brisbane’s Lost Macadamias
Wild macadamias between the Brisbane and Logan Rivers are now extremely rare and will not survive without our help.
The mysterious Mount Bauple
Home to the Bauple nut – the name says it all, but where are they and will they survive?
Wild macadamias listed on the IUCN Red List
Three Macadamia species are now listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Macadamia integrifolia, native to south-east QLD, is listed as “vulnerable” while M. ternifolia, native to QLD, and M. tetraphylla, from northern NSW, are in the more threatened category of “endangered”. Global interest in the story has been sparked by a feature …
Wild Macadamia Hunt update
Cultivated macadamia trees have significantly less genetic diversity than wild trees. This means wild trees may have a greater capacity to respond to changing conditions, new diseases, human needs, and climatic change. Learning more about the genetic composition of wild macadamias gives us the chance to conserve and protect this important native species. There might …
Global interest in origins of commercial macadamias
Global interest in the wild relatives of commercial crops received a boost this week with the news that a majority of macadamia orchards throughout the world are derived from just a few wild trees. In a paper published in Frontiers in Plant Science (21 March 2019), a team led by Cathy Nock at Southern Cross …