Macadamia tetraphylla

Macadamia tetraphylla is a tree in the Proteaceae family, native to New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. Common names include Macadamia Nut, Poppel Nut, Prickly Macadamia, Queensland Nut, Rough-shelled Bush Nut and Rough-shelled Queensland Nut

This species has dense foliage and grows up to 18 metres in height. The leaves, which have toothed margins, are 7 to 25 cm in length. It has long, pendent creamy pink to purple flowers, followed by woody, rounded fruits which are 2 to 3 cm in diameter and contain edible seeds..

It has been introduced in Mexico and has done well in the States of Michoacán and Jalisco.

First Modern Australian Native Food Crop

Macadamia tetraphylla was the first Australian native food plant to be grown by non-indigenous Australian's as a commerical crop. The first commercial plantation of macadamia trees were planted in the early 1880s by Charles Staff at Rous Mill, 12 km southeast of Lismore, New South Wales, consisting of M. tetraphylla. Seedlings from the original plantation were used as rootstock for grafted modern varieties well into the 20th Century. This original plantation was finally cleared and replaced with grafted modern varieties in the 1990s.