Beaked Hazel
Encyclopedia
Corylus cornuta is a deciduous
shrubby hazel
found in most of North America, from southern Canada south to Georgia and California. It grows in dry woodlands and forest edges and can reach 4 – 8 m tall with stems 10 – 25 cm thick with smooth gray bark. The leaves are rounded oval, coarsely double-toothed, 5–11 cm long and 3 – 8 cm broad, with hairy undersides. The flowers are catkin
s that form in the fall and pollinate in the following spring.
Corylus cornuta is named from its fruit, which is a nut
enclosed in a husk with a tubular extension 2 – 4 cm long that resembles a beak. Tiny filaments protrude from the husk and may stick into, and irritate, skin that contacts them. The spherical nuts, which are surrounded by a hard shell, are edible.
There are two varieties:
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
shrubby hazel
Hazel
The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.They have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins...
found in most of North America, from southern Canada south to Georgia and California. It grows in dry woodlands and forest edges and can reach 4 – 8 m tall with stems 10 – 25 cm thick with smooth gray bark. The leaves are rounded oval, coarsely double-toothed, 5–11 cm long and 3 – 8 cm broad, with hairy undersides. The flowers are catkin
Catkin
A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated but sometimes insect pollinated . They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping...
s that form in the fall and pollinate in the following spring.
Corylus cornuta is named from its fruit, which is a nut
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...
enclosed in a husk with a tubular extension 2 – 4 cm long that resembles a beak. Tiny filaments protrude from the husk and may stick into, and irritate, skin that contacts them. The spherical nuts, which are surrounded by a hard shell, are edible.
There are two varieties:
- Corylus cornuta var. cornuta - Eastern Beaked Hazel. Small shrub, to 4 m tall; 'beak' longer, 3 cm or more.
- Corylus cornuta var. californica - Western Beaked Hazel or California Hazelnut. Large shrub, to 8 m tall; 'beak' shorter, usually less than 3 cm.