Beaked Hazel
| Beaked Hazel Conservation status: Secure | ||||||||||||||
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| Beaked Hazel foliage | ||||||||||||||
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| Corylus cornuta Marshall |
The Beaked Hazel (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 catkins that form in the fall and pollinate in the following spring.
The Beaked Hazel 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:
- 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. Large shrub, to 8 m tall; 'beak' shorter, usually less than 3 cm.
Categories: Fagales