Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta)

Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta)

The Beaked Hazel Flower (above) is a form of catkin

A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect pollinated (as in Salix). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping. They are found in many plant families, including Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Moraceae, andSalicaceae. For some time, they were believed to be a key synapomorphy among the proposed Hamamelididae, but it is now believed that this flower arrangement has arisen independently by convergent evolution on a number of occasions.

In many of these plants only the male flowers form catkins, and the female flowers are single (hazel, oak), a cone (alder) or other types (mulberry). In other plants (such as poplar) both male and female flowers are borne in catkins.

Catkin-bearing plants include many other trees or shrubs such as birch, willow, hickory, sweet chestnut and sweetfern (Comptonia), and also some herbaceous plants such as nettle.

The word catkin is derived from the Dutch katje, meaning "kitten", on account of the resemblance to a kitten's tail Ament is from the Latin amentum, meaning "thong" or "strap"

  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 m tall with stems 10 – 25 cm thick with smooth gray bark. The leaves are rounded oval, coarsely double-toothed, 5–11 cm long and 3 – 8 cm 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 cm 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:

• Corylus cornuta var. cornuta - Eastern Beaked Hazel. Small shrub, to 4 m tall; 'beak' longer, 3 cm or more.
• Corylus cornuta var. californica - Western Beaked Hazel or California Hazelnut. Large shrub, to 8 m tall; 'beak' shorter, usually less than 3 cm.