''Macadamia jansenii'' is an endangered and poisonous

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Pro ...

, native to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was only described as a new species in 1991, being first brought to the attention of plant scientists in 1983 by Ray Jansen, a sugarcane farmer and amateur botanist from

South Kolan South Kolan is a rural locality in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Kolan had a population of 1,061 people. Geography The South Kolan region is in the Wide Bay–Burnett region, north of the state capital Brisbane an ...

in Central

. Closely related to the cultivated and recently domesticated

macadamia nut ''Macadamia'' is a genus of four species of trees in the flowering plant family Proteaceae. They are indigenous to Australia, native to northeastern New South Wales and central and southeastern Queensland specifically. Two species of the genus ...

, it has small 11–16 mm diameter nuts that have a smooth, hard, brown shell enclosing a cream, globulose

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learnin ...

that is bitter and inedible. In the wild it grows as a multi-stemmed 6–9m tall evergreen tree, with leaves having entire margins and generally in whorls of 3. An extremely rare species, it was discovered as a single population of around 60 plants in the wild in

Eastern Australia The eastern states of Australia are the states adjoining the east continental coastline of Australia. These are the mainland states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and the island state of Tasmania. The Australian Capital Territory ...

. In 2018 about 60 new mature ''Macadamia jansenii'' trees were located,Amateur naturalist finds new population of endangered wild macadamias
''ABC News'', 19 February 2019; Retrieved 22 September 2022. although a quarter of these were destroyed in the bush fires of 2019. Sequencing of the genome was carried out, as knowing the genotype of wild crop relatives is critical to diversification of crop genetics to ensure food security, producing a 751 Mb reference genome assembled to 14 chromosomes. This is a potential model to study the diversity of a whole species, helping understand the impact of small population size and the associated genetic bottlenecks. Currently there are only around 100 known trees in existence in the wild, all growing in

Bulburin National Park Bulburin National Park is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 120 km south of Gladstone and 40 km south-west of Miriam Vale. Here is the largest remnant of the subtropical rainforest in central Queensland. Diversity of wildli ...

, near

Miriam Vale Miriam Vale is a rural town and locality in the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Miriam Vale had a population of 512 people. Geography The town is situated on the Bruce Highway, north of Brisbane, the state capital, and south ...

, although an

insurance population Translocation in wildlife conservation is the capture, transport and release or introduction of species, habitats or other ecological material (such as soil) from one location to another. It contrasts with reintroduction, a term which is gener ...

propagated from cuttings has been established at the Tondoon Botanic Gardens, near

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

References

jansenii Flora of Queensland Proteales of Australia Trees of Australia {{proteaceae-stub

See also

References