American Hazelnut Fact Sheet
Family:
Betulaceae - Birch family
Latin name:
Corylus americana
Common name:
American hazelnut, American filbert
- Corylus americana - American hazelnut is a member of the birch family (Betulaceae).
- Native shrubs growing 1-3(-4) meters tall, strongly rhizomatous and forming colonial thickets; main stems (or trunk) straight, with spreading, ascending branches, the twigs slender, zigzag, light brown, with numerous stiff, red-glandular hairs.
- The leaves are deciduous, alternate, broadly oval with a heart-shaped or rounded base Leaves are 8-12(-15) cm long and 12 cm wide, acuminate, doubly serrate, hairy beneath, the petiole with stiff, glandular hairs. The leaves turn orange to red or purple in the fall.
- The fruit of the Corylus americana is a light brown, acorn-like nut 1-2 cm long, wider than long, enclosed in two, leafy, coarsely toothed (husk-like) bracts.
- Picture shows male flowers of the Americn hazelnut. There are many male flowers on each plant. They hang in long, pendulous stalks (catkins), in clusters of two or three near branch tips. The catkins appear in the fall, but don't open until the following spring.
- Male and female flowers are separate, but both types present on each plant. The female flowers are also near the end of the twigs. They are tiny and almost completely enclosed by bracts. There are several female flowers in each scaly bud. The bright red stigma and styles are the only parts that protrude from the gray-brown buds.
- Credit for Photo showing nuts of American hazelnut.
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