Other Common Names:
Hazel-nut and Hazel.The Beaked Hazel-nut is found in scattered patches throughout the province. It is a small shrub growing from two to six feet high and seldom exceeding an inch in diameter. The trunk is. usually straight and slender often whip-like. The ascending branches form a rounded crown. It prefers a rich sandy-clay loam but will grow on poorer sites. It is often associated with our sugar maple and yellow birch but also grows with mostly all other hardwoods. The wood, although moderately hard and flexible is of no commercial importance due to its size. The nuts are edible. | |
DESCRIPTION
LEAVES: Alternate, simple, oval in outline, heart-shaped or rounded at the base, 2 to 4 inches long, doubly serrate, acute or acuminate at the tip; bright green, hairy or smooth above, paler, sparingly hairy or very downy below.
FLOWERS: April-May; before leaves; unisexual, male borne in slender catkins 3 to 4 inches long, solitary or rarely clustered, female in clusters in a scaly bud, crimson thread-like stigmas, both on same twig.
FRUIT: September, a pale brown ovoid nut, 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter, enclosed in two bristly, hairy bractlets united to the tip and lengthened into a tubular beak about twice the length of the nut, bractlets pale green, becoming pale yellow-brown; kernel sweet.
TWIGS: Slender, densely hairy or smooth; no terminal bud, lateral buds, small, somewhat hairy or smooth.
BARK: At first brown to dark brown, becoming darker and rougher as tree becomes older.
WOOD: Moderately hard, heavy, straight-grained, diffuse-porous; light yellow with lighter sapwood.
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