描述
Macadamia is a genus of four species of trees indigenous to Australia and constituting part of the plant family Proteaceae. They grow naturally in north eastern New South Wales and central and south eastern Queensland. Common names include macadamia, macadamia nut, Queensland nut, bush nut, maroochi nut, queen of nuts and bauple nut; and from Indigenous Australians' languages bauple, gyndl, jindilli, and boombera. Previously, more species, with disjunct distributions, were named as members of this genus Macadamia. Genetics and morphological studies more recently published in 2008 by Austin Mast and colleagues show they have separated from this genus Macadamia, correlating less closely than thought from earlier morphological studies.
Macadamia species grow as small to large evergreen trees 2?12 m (6.6?39.4 ft) tall. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to six, lanceolate to obovate or elliptical in shape, 6?30 cm long and 2?13 cm broad, with an entire or spiny-serrated margin. The flowers are produced in a long, slender, simple raceme 5?30 cm long, the individual flowers 10?15 mm 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.