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Summary
Duration	Perennial
Growth Habit	Tree, Shrub
U.S. Nativity	Native to U.S.
Federal T/E Status
National Wetland Indicator	UPL, FACU
Morphology/Physiology
Active Growth Period	Spring and Summer
After Harvest Regrowth Rate
Bloat	None
C:N Ratio
Coppice Potential	No
Fall Conspicuous	No
Fire Resistant	No
Flower Color	Yellow
Flower Conspicuous	No
Foliage Color	Green
Foliage Porosity Summer	Dense
Foliage Porosity Winter	Moderate
Foliage Texture	Coarse
Fruit/Seed Color	Brown
Fruit/Seed Conspicuous	Yes
Growth Form	Multiple Stem
Growth Rate	Moderate
Height at 20 Years, Maximum (feet)	12
Height, Mature (feet)	12
Known Allelopath	No
Leaf Retention	No
Lifespan	Long
Low Growing Grass	No
Nitrogen Fixation
Resprout Ability	Yes
Shape and Orientation	Erect
Toxicity	None
Growth Requirements
Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils	No
Adapted to Fine Textured Soils	No
Adapted to Medium Textured Soils	Yes
Anaerobic Tolerance	None
CaCO3 Tolerance	Medium
Cold Stratification Required	Yes
Drought Tolerance	Medium
Fertility Requirement	Medium
Fire Tolerance	High
Frost Free Days, Minimum	90
Hedge Tolerance	Medium
Moisture Use	Medium
pH, Minimum	4.5
pH, Maximum	7
Planting Density per Acre, Minimum	700
Planting Density per Acre, Maximum	1700
Precipitation, Minimum	30
Precipitation, Maximum	50
Root Depth, Minimum (inches)	16
Salinity Tolerance	None
Shade Tolerance	Tolerant
Temperature, Minimum (°F)	-38
Reproduction
Bloom Period	Early Spring
Commercial Availability	Routinely Available
Fruit/Seed Abundance	Low
Fruit/Seed Period Begin	Summer
Fruit/Seed Period End	Fall
Fruit/Seed Persistence	No
Propagated by Bare Root	Yes
Propagated by Bulb	No
Propagated by Container	Yes
Propagated by Corm	No
Propagated by Cuttings	No
Propagated by Seed	Yes
Propagated by Sod	No
Propagated by Sprigs	No
Propagated by Tubers	No
Seed per Pound	549
Seed Spread Rate	Slow
Seedling Vigor	High
Small Grain	No
Vegetative Spread Rate	Slow
Suitability/Use
Berry/Nut/Seed Product	No
Christmas Tree Product	No
Fodder Product	No
Fuelwood Product	None
Lumber Product	No
Naval Store Product	No
Nursery Stock Product	Yes
Palatable Browse Animal	High
Palatable Graze Animal	Low
Palatable Human	Yes
Post Product	No
Protein Potential	Low
Pulpwood Product	No
Veneer Product	No

 

Kingdom  Plantae -- Plants

Subkingdom  Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants

Superdivision  Spermatophyta -- Seed plants

Division  Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants

Class  Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons

Subclass  Hamamelididae

Order  Fagales

Family  Betulaceae -- Birch family

Genus  Corylus L. -- hazelnut P

Species  Corylus cornuta Marsh. -- beaked hazelnut P

 

Alternate Names

California hazel, California hazelnut, California filbert (these names applying only to the Californian variety)

 

Uses

Beaked hazelnut is commercially grown for the edible nuts and used in wildlife habitat plantings to provide cover and nuts, which are eaten by squirrels, deer, grouse and pheasant.  American Indians -- picked in early autumn, stored until fully ripe, and then roasted or eaten raw, also used the nuts.  They were pounded into cakes with berries, meat, or animal fat and also boiled to extract the oil, which was used as flavoring.  The nut's milk was used to cure coughs and colds, to heal cuts, and as an astringent.  The wood was fashioned into arrows, fishing traps, hooks, and spoons and the long, flexible shoots were twisted into rope.  

 

Beaked hazelnut has limited ornamental value and cultivars apparently have not been developed. 

 

Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as, state noxious status, and wetland indicator values.

 

Description

General: Birch family (Betulaceae.:  Native shrubs or small trees growing 1-8(-15) meters tall, rhizomatous and forming colonial thickets; main stems (or trunk) straight, with spreading, ascending branches, the twigs light brown, sometimes with glandular hairs.  Leaves are deciduous, alternate, nearly round to narrowly ovate or ovate-oblong, with a heart-shaped or rounded base, often nearly angular and slightly lobed near the tip, 4-10 cm long, blunt to broadly acute, doubly serrate, usually pubescent on major veins and in vein axils, the petiole with or without 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) 4-6 cm long, in clusters of 2-3 near branch tips, appearing in the fall but opening the following spring; female flowers: several in a scaly bud, tiny and inconspicuous with only bright red stigma and styles protruding from the otherwise gray-brown buds, almost completely enclosed by bracts, near the end of the twigs.  Fruit is an acorn-like nut about 2 cm in diameter, completely concealed by two, leafy, coarsely toothed (husk-like) bracts fused at the tip and forming an extended tubular beak.  The common name refers to the bracteal beak of the fruit; “hazel” from the Old English name for filbert. 

 

Variation within the species: beaked hazelnut is divided into two distinct entities:

 

Corylus cornuta Marsh. var. cornuta   

     synonym: Corylus rostrata Ait.

Corylus cornuta var. californica (A. DC.) Sharp

    synonym: Corylus californica Rose

    synonym: Corylus rostrata var. californica A. DC.

    synonym: Corylus cornuta var. glandulosa Boivin

 

Var. californica differs from var. cornuta in habit, leaf shape, the presence of glandular hairs, form and size of the involucre, geography, and other features, summarized in the contrast below. 

 

1. Small to large shrubs; leaf blades ovate to narrowly elliptic, apex distinctly acuminate; twigs and petioles without glandular hairs; bracteal beak 2 times or more the fruit length.  – var. cornuta

1. Large shrubs or small trees; leaf blades nearly round or broadly elliptic, apex broadly acute to obtuse; twigs and petioles usually with glandular hairs; bracteal beak less than 2 times the fruit length.  – var. californica 

 

Preliminary studies of the beaked hazelnut complex world-wide, one North American species with two varieties or subspecies and one east Asian species with two varieties, indicate that Corylus cornuta var. cornuta is overall more similar in morphology to the east Asian C. sieboldiana Blume than to var. californica, suggesting that C. cornuta is better regarded as two separate species.  

 

Distribution and Adaptation

Var. cornuta: eastern north America from Alabama and Georgia (Appalachian) northward to Newfoundland, westward through Canada and the Great Lakes states to northeast British Columbia, with several disjunct population systems.  Open woods or openings, edges of woods, thickets, fencerows, and roadsides and other disturbed areas, slopes and well-drained streamsides, at 100--500 meters elevation.  Flowering early spring, before leafing; fruiting fall.  

 

Var. californica: from the northern half of California to Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia, along the pacific coast.  Damp rocky slopes and stream banks in coastal mountain ranges, at 1000--2500 meters elevation.  Flowering: very early spring, before leafing; fruiting: fall.

 

Establishment

No information available; probably similar to American hazelnut. 

 

Management

Beaked hazelnut is removed by growers of commercial, closely managed forests, primarily because of its aggressive colonial habit and corresponding competition with timber trees. 

 

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. 

 

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.  <https://hua.huh.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/Flora/flora.pl?FLORA_ID=12395>

 

Hardin, J.W. 1952.  The Juglandaceae and Corylaceae of Tennessee.  Castanea 17:78-89. 

 

Hsiung, W.W.Y. 1951.  An ecological study of beaked hazel in the Cloquet Experimental Forest.  Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

 

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.

 

Kurmis, V. & E. Sucoff 1989.  Population density and height distribution of Corylus cornuta in undisturbed forests of Minnesota.  Canad. J. Bot. 67:2409-2413.   

 

Tappeiner, J.C. 1971.  Invasion and development of beaked hazel in red pine stands in northern Minnesota.  Ecology 52:514-519. 

 

Tappeiner, J.C. 1979.  Effects of fire and 2,4-D on the early stages of beaked hazel (Corylus cornuta) understories.  Weed Science 27:162-166. 

 

Whitcher, I. & J. Wen 1999.  Morphometric analysis of beaked hazelnuts, the Corylus cornuta complex.  XVI International Botanical Congess, Abstract Number: 620.  

 

Wiegand, K.M. 1909.  Recognition of Corylus rostrata and Corylus americana.  Rhodora 11:107. 

 

Zimmerman, M.L. 1991.  Corylus cornuta var. californica.  IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler).  The fire effects information system [Data base].  USDA, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, Montana.  <https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/>

 

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<https://plants.usda.gov> or the Plant Materials Program Web site <https://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov>

 

 

 

Attribution:  U.S. Department of Agriculture