An amateur naturalist has found a new population of extremely rare wild macadamias.

Retired cane farm manager Keith Sarnadsky has found 37 new trees of the endangered macadamia jansenii species in Bulburin National Park, south of Rockhampton.

The Macadamia Conservation Trust of Australia had previously thought there were just 90 of the trees in the wild.

Mr Sarnadsky found the new stand using an internet satellite imaging service.

“It was just a matter of looking for specific details like the colour of a new flush of growth and the habits of the known plants we had,” he told the ABC.

“I just looked in tributaries of Granite Creek and worked our way upstream, and I think the first group of trees I found was about roughly five kilometres from the first population.”

Jansenii is the smallest of the native Australian macadamia species, and is known for producing small, bitter nuts on an evergreen plant.

The species is considered the hardiest of Australia’s four native varieties, as they live the furthest north.

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