Hazel

The Hazel, Corylus avellana, has smooth silvery bark, brilliantly green downy leaves, and early in the year forms bright yellow Catkins which dangle and sway in the wind, giving a welcome hint of spring yellow to the otherwise barren hedges and trees of winter.

Quick out of the blocks

It is particularly quick out of the blocks compared to other native plants because its catkins are formed the previous year and are ready to open as soon as conditions are right, braving the cold winds in January and February when other plants are still asleep.

It has evolved this strategy of early flowering because it is a plant of the underwoods and needs to get away to a good start before taller trees put out their leaves and shade the forest floor.

Decorative tassels

The Catkins appear before its leaves and are like little decorative tassels in the way they hang down, they are usually pale marzipan yellow or lighter in colour.

These catkins produce and release pollen on to the wind on warmer days over a few weeks and open before the leaves in order to maximise the pollen’s exposure to the wind, although they are only a couple of centimetres long they can each hold up to 240 individual blooms.

Both the male and female flowers are of great beauty and found on the same tree although they will open weeks apart on adjacent trees, this is to encourage fertilisation of neighbouring trees and not themselves.

The female flowers are to be found along the same twigs but are usually lower on the twig, this is to allow the pollen to drift down on to them, although the Hazel can’t pollinate itself. They are very tiny too, just a few millimetres long, so to the naked eye they are barely visible, just a pink blur on a small green bud, close in against the branch.

By using a magnifying glass, however, you can pick out exquisitely delicate red tendrils, these are styles, as there are no petals.

No need for petals

The Hazel has no need for petals, because petals are a device to attract pollinating insects, and the Hazel is wind-pollinated. This doesn’t mean that pollinating insects don’t visit them though, in fact they can be very popular with bees and will often be their only source of food if they emerge too early in the year.

The Hazel only grows to about 8 metres tall at the most which makes it a large bush rather than a proper tree and will grow in any soil that is not waterlogged. It thrives particularly well in poor dry soil and rocky places, and also provides good shelter for native wildlife, especially ground nesting birds like Nightjars and Woodcock.

Its leaves are wrinkled, about 10 cm long, are oval or even round in shape and unfurl from tightly coiled sprouts of silver fluff to fully grown leaves in a surprisingly short time.

They become food for the caterpillars and larvae of many native species of insects such as the Hazel Sawfly, which lays its eggs inside the leaves, with the adult fly eating the pollen, the aptly named Nut-tree tussock moth and the Large Emerald moth, named after its emerald green wings which match the vivid green of the hazels leaves perfectly so as to disguise it against hungry birds.

In fact there are 7 species of moth native to the British isles which are only found on the Hazel.

Essential larder

The plethora of caterpillars on the leaves make it an essential larder for birds feeding their young and the tightly knit branches make an ideal place to hide a nest. Later on in the year the fruit of the Hazel, Hazel nuts, which grow in clusters of 1 to 4 surrounded by leafy ‘bracts’, provide a food source for animals fattening up to prepare for winter.

Many animals eat Hazel nuts, including Jays, Woodpeckers, Mice, Squirrels and Deer and the bite, or beak, marks left on the discarded shells on the woodland floor will tell you which creatures have been eating them.

Caltainn, the tree of wisdom

In Gaelic the Hazel is known as ‘Calltainn’ and was considered by the ancient Celts to be the tree of wisdom, eaten by the Salmon the nuts gave them the ability to swim out to sea each year but always know where to return to.

Hazel, by Mandy Haggith

A nut in my hand
a tree in my mind

in the current
a salmon waits
for hazel wisdoms
to fall

a tree made the nut
the nut will make a tree

in the woods
time bends
its arrow-shaft
loops

life to life
fungus to fungus

A B-H