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American hazelnutCorylus americana Walt.Plant Symbol = COAM3
Contributed By: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & the Biota of North America Program
Alternate common name
American filbert
Uses
Hazelnuts and filberts are produced by species of Corylus. Commercial filberts (C. colurna L. and C. maxima Mill.) are cultivated in various parts of the world, particularly Turkey, Italy, Spain, China, and the US. Nuts of the native American species (C. americana and C. cornuta) are smaller but similar to the cultivated ones in flavor, and C. cornuta also is commercially cultivated for nut production. The nuts are sweet and may be eaten raw or ground into flour for cake-like bread. The nuts were used by American Indians to flavor soups.
The nuts of American hazelnut, which have a higher nutritional value than acorns and beechnuts, also are eaten by squirrels, foxes, deer, northern bobwhite, ruffed grouse, turkey, woodpeckers, pheasants, and deer. The leaves, twigs, and catkins are browsed by rabbits, deer, and moose. The male catkins are a winter food for turkey and ruffed grouse. The dense, low growth habit provides cover and nesting sites for many wildlife species.
Extractives of American hazelnut and their physically modified derivatives, primarily glycerides of the fatty acids, are used for emollients. Other derivatives, such as tinctures, concretes, absolutes, essential oils,
oleoresins, terpenes, terpene-free fractions, distillates, and residues are used for botanicals.
American hazelnut has long been valued as an ornamental and for planting in naturalized settings. It grows in sun or partial shade and is useful for borders because of its colonial tendency. The leaves turn orange to red or purple in the fall. It is available from various commercial growers there apparently are no cultivars apart from the wild type. Cultivars of the European filbert (C. avellana L.) tend to be small trees and also are useful in landscaping.
Status
Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plants current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values.
Description
General: Birch family (Betulaceae). Native shrubs growing 1-3(-4) meters tall, strongly rhizomatous and forming colonial thickets; main stems (or trunk) straight, with spreading, ascending branches, the twigs slender, zigzag, light brown, with numerous stiff, red-glandular hairs. Leaves are deciduous, alternate, broadly oval with a heart-shaped or rounded base, 8-12(-15) cm long and 12 cm wide, acuminate, doubly serrate, hairy beneath, the petiole with stiff, glandular hairs. Male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers are separate, but both types present on each plant (the species monoecious); male flowers numerous in long, pendulous stalks (catkins) 8-10 cm long, in clusters of two or three near branch tips, appearing in the fall, but opening the following spring. Female flowers are several in a scaly bud, tiny and inconspicuous with only bright red stigma and styles protruding from the gray-brown buds, almost completely enclosed by bracts, near the end of the twigs. Fruit is a light brown, acorn-like nut 1-2 cm long, wider than long, enclosed in two, leafy, coarsely toothed (husk-like) bracts. The common name reflects its being native to North America and hazel is from the Old English name for filbert.
Variation within the species: several variants have been described within the species: Corylus americana var. indehiscens Palmer & Steyermark (fruit bracts united along one side) from southwestern Missouri; Corylus americana forma missouriensis (A. DC.) Fern. (petioles essentially glandless) from southeastern Kansas. These have not been generally recognized, and the species is currently treated with no formal variants.
Distinguished from beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) by absence of a horned beak on the fruit.
Distribution: Widespread in eastern North America, Maine west to Saskatchewan and North Dakota, south to eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Georgia, not found along the Gulf coast region. For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.
Adaptation
American hazelnut occurs in moist to dry woods and thickets, forest margins, roadsides, and fencerows and other disturbed areas. It grows best on rich, moist, well-drained soils but often may be found close to streamsides and also grows on prairies. Open habitats are common, but it also can grow successfully in deep shade and is found at 0-750 at meters in elevation. This species flowers in FebruaryApril before the emergence of leaves and fruits in JulyAugust.
Establishment
Plants of American hazelnut may begin producing seed after the first year and produce good seed crops every 2-3 years. The seeds have a period of dormancy, apparently overcome by cold treatment.
Management
American hazelnut is removed by growers of commercial, closely managed forests, primarily because of its aggressive colonial habit and corresponding competition with timber trees. It is easily top-killed by spring and summer fires. The underground roots and rhizomes can survive low- to moderate-severity fires when the humus is moist, but they are relatively shallow and vulnerable to repeated summer fires when the humus is dry and combustible.
American hazelnut is not affected by any serious pests. Several canker-forming fungi may result in girdling or breakage of stems. Mildew may defoliate plants and fungi may destroy nuts.
Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)
Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone book under United States Government. The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading Department of Agriculture.
References
Brunner, F. & D.E. Fairbrothers 1979. Serological investigation of the Corylaceae. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 106:97-103.
Buckman, R.E. 1964. Effects of prescribed burning on hazel in Minnesota. Ecology 45:626-629.
Coladonato, M. 1993. Corylus americana. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler). The fire effects information system [Data base]. USDA, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, Montana.
Drumke, J.S. 1965. A systematic survey of Corylus in North America. Diss. Abstr. 25:4925-4926.
Furlow, J.J. 1990. The genera of Betulaceae in the southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arbor. 71:1-67.
Furlow, J.J. 1993. Corylus. Pp. 535-538, IN: Flora of North America, north of Mexico. Vol. 3. Oxford Univ. Press, New York, New York.
Hardin, J.W. 1952. The Juglandaceae and Corylaceae of Tennessee. Castanea 17:78-89.
Kasapligil, B. 1964. A contribution to the histotaxonomy of Corylus (Betulaceae). Adansonia 4:43-90.
Kasapligil, B. 1972. A bibliography on Corylus (Betulaceae) with annotations. Northern Nut Growers Ann. Rept. 63:107-162.
Prepared By
Guy Nesom
Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Species Coordinator
Lincoln Moore
USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Edited: 13nov00 jsp; 10jun03 ahv; 05jun06 jsp
For more information about this and other plants, please contact your local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS Web site< HYPERLINK "http://plants.usda.gov" http://plants.usda.gov> or the Plant Materials Program Web site < HYPERLINK http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov>
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's HYPERLINK "http://www.usda.gov/oo/target.htm" \o "PLANTS is not responsible for the content or availability of other Web sites." \t "_blank" TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD).
To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call 202-720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
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Plant Guide
Plant Materials
Plant Fact Sheet/Guide Coordination Page
National Plant Data Center
( William S. Justice
Dept. of Botany, Smithsonian Institution
@ PLANTS
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