You know this nut! The Macadamia Nut is most often associated with Hawaii, however they are actually an endemic rainforest tree species of Australia. In an awesome example of branding, these nuts were once brought to Hawaii by a sugar cane farmer in the early 1880s and later developed into a commercial plantation in Honolulu in 1925 as the Hawaii Macadamia Nut Company, which set their stage for becoming every tourist’s favorite thing to bring back from Hawaii. Few tourists realize, however, that the nuts sold to them in Hawaii are from mixed sources, such as from South Africa and Kenya. Hawaiian local growers are trying hard to get people to check the source of their nuts and buy locally grown Macadamia nuts.
The commercial Macadamia Nut is a mixture of two species: either Macadamia tetraphylla, M. integrifolia, or a mixture of the two. As, the M. integrifolia nuts contain less sugar than the M. tetraphylla species, commercial Macadamia nuts tend to be the M. integrifolia species, as they burn less upon baking and are therefore preferred. However, as the M. tetraphylla has a better flavor (to many people) when eaten raw, they are also found in trade, as well as hybrids between the two. As an even sadder turn of events, M. integrifolia in 2020 was also now listed as a vulnerable species by IUCN in its own lands.
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Photo by Antony Trivet