News

MCT is proud to announce a new grant opportunity through our partnership with the Australian Flora Foundation.  The grant is for up to $20,000/year for up to 3 years to support a project that will enhance knowledge of the ecology of macadamias and inform conservation strategies (read more here).

There is so much still to understand about how macadamias grow and interact with their surroundings – what pollinators visit trees in the forest, how are mature seeds dispersed, how fast can macadamias colonise up-slope compared with down-slope, what constrains them from growing in some forest types?

The inaugural Ian and Janet McConachie Macadamia Conservation Research grant went directly to Mollie Cooper at Southern Cross University to support her investigation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Macadamia tetraphylla growing in forest habitat.  Field collections are well under way – now hours of microscope work are required to see if the forest trees are relying on proteoid cluster roots to mobilise phosphorus from the soil, or whether some trees have a relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi – tiny fungal partners that grow into the roots of plants and exchange nutrients including phosphorus and nitrogen for carbohydrates produced by the tree.

The 2024 Ian and Janet McConachie Macadamia Conservation Research grant was awarded to Dr Albert Wong to develop protocols to conserve M. jansenii, the rarest macadamia, using tissue culture and cryopreservation.

Image 1: Proteoid cluster growing on M. tetraphylla root growing wild on the Alstonville plateau

Image 2: Collecting root samples and cuttings from M. tetraphylla near Meerschaum Vale