Asian hazel is East Asia's wild hazelnut, a close cousin of the European hazel that gives us store-bought hazelnuts. It doesn't grow wild in the US, but a few North American nut growers have trialed it because it is very cold-hardy. Its leaves look oddly squared off, with a flat tip ending in a small point.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A deciduous, many-stemmed shrub or small tree up to about 23 ft (7 m) tall, with gray bark.
- Leaves
- Rounded leaves 1.5–5 in (4–13 cm) long with coarse double teeth and often shallow lobes. The tip is often cut straight across, with a short point in the middle.
- Flowers
- Wind-pollinated appear before the leaves. Male catkins are yellowish brown, 1.2–2.8 in (3–7 cm) long, and hang in clusters of 2–5; the tiny female flowers show only bright red stigmas.
- Fruit
- Nuts in clusters of 2–6, up to about 5/8 in (1.5 cm) across, each partly wrapped in a short, bell-shaped leafy husk. They are edible and taste much like common hazelnuts.
Look-alikes
Common hazelCorylus avellana
The two are very similar. Asian hazel leaves tend to be more lobed, and their tips are often cut straight across with a small point in the middle.
Why they get mixed upThe cultivar name 'Heterophylla' has long been used for lobed-leaf forms of common hazel, so garden labels can mislead.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Forest edges
- Open woodland
- Range
- Native to northern and central China, Korea, Japan, and southeastern Siberia, in forests up to about 7,900 ft (2,400 m). In the US it is seen only in cultivation, mostly in nut-growing trials and plant collections.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- In China its nuts have long been gathered from wild shrubs. Breeders there cross it with European hazel to combine its hardiness with bigger, better nuts, and it is now grown commercially.
- Hardy to about USDA Zone 4. North American growers have tested it for its cold and drought tolerance and its resistance to , a serious disease of hazelnut orchards.
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