Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

AMERICAN HAZELNUT

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Corylus americana Walt.

Wildcat Glades, Newton County, Missouri

Height: Shrubs to 10 feet

Family: Betulaceae - Birch Family

Flowering Period: March

Also Called:

American hazel.

Trunks:

Stems ascending to erect; branches unarmed; bark brown to grayish brown, smooth or fissures shallow; wood white, more or less hard.

Twigs:

Reddish brown to tan, flexible, pubescent, stipitate-glandular; leaf scars half-round; pith greenish white; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .08 to .12 inch, apex obtuse, scales ciliate.

Leaves:

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .2 to .5 inch; blade ovate, 2 to 6.4 inches long, 1.6 to 4.8 inches wide, base truncate to rounded or cordate, margins 1-2-serrate, apex acute to acuminate, lower surfaces green, sparsely pubescent, upper surfaces green to dark green, sparsely pubescent.

Flowers:

Inflorescences are catkins formed in previous season and exposed in winter; staminate catkins: axillary, 1-2, pendent, 1.2 to 3.2 inches long, .02 to .03 inch wide, many-flowered; pistillate catkins: proximal to staminate, 1, erect, .2 to .6 inch long, .16 to .4 inch wide, 6-12-flowered, not becoming cone-like or woody in fruit; peduncle to .6 inch in fruit. Unisexual, more or less radially symmetric; staminate: bearing bracts, each bract with 3 flowers; perianth absent; stamens 4; pistillate: bearing bracts, each bract with 2 flowers; perianth adnate to ovary; pistil 1, ovary inferior, 2-locular proximally; styles 2; stigmas 2.

Fruit:

September-October; nuts brown, nearly globose, .5 to .7 inch diam., minutely velvety, surrounded by and basally adnate to 2 bracts, bracts persist and enlarge with age, irregularly dentate distally; seed 1.

Habitat:

Edges of upland forests and woodlands, thickets.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

The kernels of American hazelnut are sweet and nutritious, high in protein, dietary fiber, vitamin E, and certain minerals, and can be eaten raw or roasted. They were a food source of the Dakota, Omaha, Ponca, and Winnebago tribes (Kindscher 1987). Squirrels, chipmunks, and birds also consume the kernels (Stephens 1973).

Comments:

American hazelnut is monoecious.

American hazelnut catkins