Macadamia Nuts in Hawaii: History and Production - ctahr ...

INTRODUCTION
The macadamia is indigenous to the Brisbane
area on the eastern shore of Australia, where it was
found growing in the native forest between 25°
south latitude near Maryborough, where M. integrifolia
was predominant, and Coffs Harbour at
31° south latitude, where M. tetraphylla made up
the forest stand. Although Australian botanists
discovered and named the nut tree more than 125
years ago, the Australian farmers did not take
advantage of the tree until 1950, afterthe potential
of macadamia nut was indicated by the successful
planting at Keaau, Hawaii.
Macadamia was introduced to Hawaii by W. H.
Purvis (Fig. 1) in 1881, by the Jordan brothers
(Figs. 2 and 3) in 1892, and by the Territorial
Board of Agriculture between 1891 and 1895. The
Hawaiians, too, were slow in exploiting its commercial
possibilities; however, Hawaii now is the
single largest producer in the world. The development
and growth of the industry have been based
largely on the untiring efforts of the agricultural
scientists of the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Federal Experiment Station and
the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station of
the University of Hawaii. Early industrial
pioneers then took daring chances in order to
establish a nut industry.
These notes have been prepared to (l) recognize
the men associated with the taxonomy of the tree
in Australia and its early introduction to Hawaii;
(2) examine, credit, and focus attention on the
early industrial and research pioneers who contributed
enormously to developing Hawaii's
macadamia nut industry; (3) record for posterity
the contribution of each; (4) record under one
cover reliable cultural and researched information
pertinent to establishing a commercial operation
from plantation through processing to marketing;
(5) make note of the rather primitive equipment
used through the years; (6) record interesting
anecdotes and stories in the Hawaiian macadamia
community and industry; and (7) preserve pictures
illustrating points of interest and contention.
6
MACADAMIA NUTS IN HAWAll:
HISTORY AND PRODUCTION
Gordon T. Shigeura and Hiroshi Ooka
DISCOVERY OF MACADAMIA NUT
The discovery and the botanical identification
of the macadamia nut tree in Australia in the period
from 1840 to 1860 have been treated very lightly
and impersonally in the literature. For posterity's
sake, biographical notes l on each of the individuals
involved, who became famous in their own
right, will be recorded here to link these individuals
with macadamia.
Storey (80), in a thoroughly researched paper on
nomenclature, credits Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig
Leichhardt (1813-1848?) (Fig. 4), born atTrebatsch,
Prussia (a state in northern Germany and formerly
a republic), who studied at the University of
Berlin, as having collected the first botanical
specimen of macadamia in 1843. Although Leichhardt
assumed the title of "Dr.," available
evidence indicates he did not earn a degree of any
kind. Rather, Leichhardt was a vagabond wanderer
who migrated to Sydney in 1842 to find a
new life for himself in Australia rather than serve
in the German military, thus making him a
deserter. Upon his arrival, failing to gain an
expected position a t the botanical gardens, the
wanderer from Germany did much botanizing
throughout the Brisbane area, particularly in the
direction of Moreton Bay. During this period he
lived with and subsisted on the several newacquaintances
he was able to make. On one of these
trips, Leighhardt collected a macadamia specimen
and deposited it, undescribed, in the herbarium at
the botanical gardens in Melbourne.
In spite of his shortcomings as a botanist,
Leichhardt is remembered in Australian history as
an explorer who led the expedition to show that
all the coastal land of Queensland to the Dividing
Range to the west, and the coastal Northern
Territory to Darwin were suited for settlement
because of the many rivers he discovered throughout
the area. Today, Leichhardt is mentioned in
history books used in Australian schools. Among
'Biographical notes were obtained at the John Oxley Library in
Brisbane, Australia.