Wild Macadamia Conservation
Bush Nuts can be difficult to find scattered along rugged forested slopes, so this project will train machine learning to search satellite imagery for likely habitat. Once a range of remote locations have been identified, cameras will be installed to monitor the insects that visit the trees at the different sites.
Like many large, fatty seeds, macadamia nuts are not easy to store longer than a few years and still grow into a tree. This project looks at alternative ways of storing macadamia genetic material so that macadamias can be added to the world’s seed banks.
Trees are part of a complex web of life and yet we know very little about what goes on in and around the roots of macadamia trees. This project investigates the fungi that lives around Bush Nuts, not just in the soil, but in symbiosis with the roots themselves.
New techniques that combine drying and cooling are being explored to see if macadamia seeds can be stored after all.
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 …
So much macadamia habitat has been cleared in and around Brisbane, and yet old trees survive in backyards, acreage blocks, farmland and creek and bushland reserves. Some of these trees may be the last individuals of lost populations. We are calling on Brisbane residents to help us find the old trees – can you think …
It’s official! MCT has received funding through the Australian Government Threatened Species Recovery Fund to create four ex-situ plantings of the endangered Macadamia jansenii. Assistant Minister for the Environment, the Honourable Melissa Price, announced funding for eight species, saying that the new projects would help to improve the trajectories of some of Australia’s most threatened …
