BETULACEAE BIRCH FAMILY 
HAZELNUT 
Corylus americana Walt. 
The Birch family is made up entirely of trees and 
shrubs, and includes also the Birch, Alder, Blue Beech 
and Ironwood. The Hazelnut is not a wild flower but a 
fine early spring-bloom- 
ing shrub which might 4 “wee 
well be used more ex- se) KK 
tensively as an ornamen- 
tal plant. It is easily 
grown, adapts itself ad- Ay d mee BS 
mirably to hedges, and 
the fruits are as tasty as 
imported Filberts, 
though smaller. 
3 
oypoyt “ 
40. 
20 dy 
Boe 9) 
a, 
The Hazelnut grows 
3-12 feet tall along fence 
rows, forest borders and 
similar places in moist and 
dry situations from Maine 
to Saskatchewan, south to 
Florida and Oklahoma. It 
blooms in March and April 
and the nuts are ripe in September and October. 
The finely toothed leaves are oval or ovate, with tips acute 
or acuminate, smooth or nearly so above and finely hairy be- 
neath, and 3-6 inches long. Stiff pinkish hairs cover the young 
shoots but the twigs become smooth. 
The flowers are monoecious. In early spring the staminate 
flower is produced in a pendulous catkin which was formed late 
in the preceding fall. There are 4 stamens and 2 bractlets which 
are more or less attached to the scale of the catkin. Each stamen 
is split in such a way that there appear to be 8 stamens with 
1-celled anthers. 
The pistillate flowers are borne, several in a cluster, from 
scaly buds at the ends of short branches. Each consists of 1 
pistil with a 5-lobed calyx grown fast to the ovary. The style 
is short and there are 2 red stigmas. Surrounding the flower are 2 
bractlets, enlarged in fruit and forming the husklike covering of 
the nut. 
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