Macadamia Pictures

The Macadamia tree is indigenous to the rain forests of Australia, it is a tall, evergreen member of the protea family, with firm shiny leaves. In Spring, flowers cover the trees, varying in colour from white to pink and even bronze. In due course these sweet smelling blossoms turn into long clusters of green fruit (husks). De-husking the nut exposes perfectly round, shiny brown nuts. The particularly hard woody shells on the nuts defy normal nutcrackers, and require special equipment to extract the ivory-coloured kernels. The kernel is very versatile considered to be the world's finest. Their texture and flavour make them the most versatile of nuts and, they are exceptionally healthy. The Macadamia is probably the fastest growing tree crop industry in South Africa. Over 90% of the production [12% of production] is exported annually.