Corylus americana

Corylus americana, the American Hazelnut, is a species of the genus Corylus that is native to eastern North America, in eastern Canada and the Eastern United States.

Description

The plant grows to a height of 8–12 feet, with a crown spread of 10 to 15 feet. It is a medium to large shrub that under some conditions can take the form of a small tree. It is an often multi-stemmed shrub with long, outward growing branches that form a dense, spreading or spherical shape.

American Hazelnut has edible nuts that mature in September–October.

Ecology

The nuts produced by American hazelnut are a mast of squirrels, deer, turkey, woodpeckers, pheasants and other animals. The male catkins are a food staple of ruffed grouse throughout the winter.

Uses

The nuts are edible, although smaller than the more commonly cultivated filberts (Corylus maxima,Corylus colurna,Corylus avellana, and hybrids thereof).

Native Americans used Corylus americana for medicinal purposes.

Cultivation

Corylus americana is cultivated as an ornamental plant for native plant gardens, and in wildlife gardens to attract and keep fauna in an area. There are cultivated hybrids of Corylus americana with Corylus avellana which aim to combine the larger nuts of the latter with the former's resistance to a North American fungus Cryptosporella anomala.

Corylus cornuta

Corylus cornuta (Beaked Hazel) 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 metres (13–26 ft) tall with stems 10–25 centimetres (3.9–9.8 in) thick with smooth gray bark. The leaves are rounded oval, coarsely double-toothed, 5–11 centimetres (2.0–4.3 in) long and 3–8 centimetres (1.2–3.1 in) broad, with hairy undersides. The flowers are catkins 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 centimetres (0.79–1.57 in) 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: