Seed morphology and germination of Macadamia (Macadamia integrifolia) from North Sumatra

Abstract

Macadamia is an endemic species in Queensland’s rainforest and known as one of high economical nut producer. In Indonesia, makadamia cultivated in some research garden in West Java and East Java also can be found in Aeknauli Forest Research in Sipiso-piso. As valuable nut producer, macadamia can be adopted as one of targeted species for restoring Lake Toba through agroforestry scheme. For supporting the successfulness of restoring program using macadamia trees, information on species and seed character was needed, especially about its propagation strategy. But this information still very limited in Indonesia. Therefore, our research was conducted to get information on seed morphology of makadamia and it seed germination process. For seed morphology, data on seed part was quantified through direct observation and measurement. The germination process was quantified through direct observation and its occurrence process. The result on seed morphology showed that macadamia fruit was round shape on ripe condition. The fruit has 2.20 cm diameter average and 8.58 of fruit weight. The seed and endosperm thickness were 0.38cm and 1.54 cm respectively. Makadamia has hypogeal germination type and takes 5-6 months for germinating.