Macadamia jansenii

Macadamia jansenii is an endangered and poisonous tree in the flowering plant family Proteaceae, native to Queensland in Australia.[1] 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 in Central Queensland.[2] Closely related to the cultivated and recently domesticated macadamia nut, it has small 11–16 mm diameter nuts that have a smooth, hard, brown shell enclosing a cream, globulose kernel 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.[3] An extremely rare species, it was discovered as a single population of around 60 plants in the wild in Eastern Australia.[4] In 2018 about 60 new mature Macadamia jansenii trees were located, although a quarter of these were destroyed in the bush fires of 2019.

Macadamia jansenii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Macadamia
Species:	M. jansenii
Binomial name
Macadamia jansenii C.L.Gross & P.H.Weston

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.[5] Currently there are only around 100 known trees in existence all growing grows near Miriam Vale in Queensland, meaning 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.