Beaked hazels are a deciduous (leaf shedding during season changes) hazel. The scientific classification is Corylus cornuta. This shrubby hazel can be found in most of the North American continent from eastern Canada south to California and Georgia. It grows in woody areas on the edges of forests and in dry woodlands.
While the Beaked hazel will grow in shady areas such as the shadows of large trees, there is no doubt that they prefer the bright sunlight. They can also grow on the edges of soil that are moist but prefer to grow in soil that is well drained. They cannot tolerate fire well as fires dry them out and they will die. They are also very sensitive to windy areas and should never be planted as a part of a windbreak. They do make good border shrubs around homes where they get plenty of sunlight. There are two subspecies of the Beaked hazel. They are Corylus comuta variety- cornuta, the Eastern Beaked Hazel and Corylus comuta variety- California Western beaked hazel or the California Hazelnut.
The Beaked hazel grows from four to eight meters in height with stems that can be from ten to twenty five centimeters thick.It has smooth gray bark. The leaves are a rounded oval shape that are coarse double toothed. They are from five to eleven centimeters long. They are hairy and broad being up to thirty-eight inches wide. The underside of the leaf is also hairy.
There are tubular two to four centimeter long tubular extensions that look like a beak. Really small filaments stick out from the husk and can stick into skin that touches it. It causes quite an irritation on the skin. The spherical nuts are safe to eat and they grow in a leafy sac that is covered with very coarse hair. They begin to ripen in late August to early September.
The flower or catkins (a slim cylindrical flower cluster with very small or non existent petals) will form in the fall months and pollinate during the following spring months. The female flowers are borne on pedant catkins on the twigs from the prior year while the male flowers are born from small round buds that pollinate in the fall. They pollinate the tiny red female flowers between April and May.
The Beaked hazel is sometimes confused with other plants such as the Paper Birch, Speckled Alder or the Green Alder.
