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Corylus are large shrubs or trees that produce nuts. The common ‘hazel’ is native to the UK and is often found in old hedge rows.

Key Features of the Hazel

• Latin name – Corylus avellana
• Height – up to 40 feet
• Type of tree – Deciduous
• Leaves – Green, round and double toothed
• Flowers – Male long catkins female small bud like with red stigma on same tree.
• Fruit – Nut surrounded by husk
• Bark – Silver-grey to pale brown
• Family – Corylaceae related to beech

Origins and Distribution of the Hazel

• Found throughout Europe and North Africa.
• Thrives in woodland and hedges.

Uses and Attributes of the Hazel

• Hazel has the ability to produce multiple stems.
• Extensively used for coppicing to make hurdles, hoops for baskets and woven wattle .
• Valuable for the crop of edible Hazelnuts
• Hazel stems can be split lengthways and bent back on themselves to make a hedge.
• Used in the garden as pole and sweetpea supports

Gardeners Tips for the Hazel

• Two trees are needed for fertilisation if you want nuts.
• Tall straight stems can be used to support plants in the garden.
• Useful as a tall screening shrub or small tree

Other types of Hazel and key species

• Corylus colchican produces a nut called a Filbert..
• There are 15 species of Hazel but the common hazel produces most of the nut crop.
• There are a number of cultivars now available.
• Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’ is called the corkscrew hazel and is grown as an ornamental shrub or small tree

Hazel comments from elsewhere

• See growing nuts in the UK.
• After coppicing the growth of successive new stems leads to the formation of a large base, or stool, which can be up to 6 feet in diameter and in this way hazels can live for several hundred years.
• Hazel is an important host for lichens and provides food for some moths.

Read about our series on British tree reviews with a bakers dozen fact sheets

Credits
Hazel DSCF8046 by hedgerowmobile CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Hazel flower by Deanster1983 CC BY-ND 2.0 This hazel flower is a female – the male flowers are the well known and much more obvious “Lamb’s Tail” catkins. I think this flower resembles some sort of Sea Anemone!
A lot of nuts – 73/365 by Wahlander CC BY-NC 2.0