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Corylus avellana
Also called Common Hazel, European hazel, Cobnut, European Filbert, Hazelnut, Barcelona Nuts, Common Filbert
Common hazel is a deciduous shrub or small tree, usually 3 to 8 m tall, grown mainly for its edible nuts (hazelnuts or cobnuts). It is hardy and easy to grow in cool temperate gardens, and most commercial nuts come from named cultivars.
Corylus avellana, the common hazel, is a species of flowering plant in the birch family Betulaceae. The shrubs usually grow 3–8 metres (10–26 feet) tall. The nut is round, in contrast to the longer filbert nut. Common hazel is native to Europe and Western Asia.
The species is mainly cultivated for its nuts. The name 'hazelnut' applies to the nuts of any species in the genus Corylus, but in commercial contexts usually describes C. avellana. This hazelnut or cob nut (sometimes cobnut), the kernel of the seed, is edible and used raw, roasted, or ground into a paste. Historically, the shrub was an important component of the hedgerows used as field boundaries in lowland England. The wood was grown as coppice, with the poles used for wattle-and-daub building and agricultural fencing.
There are many cultivars of Corylus avellana; by 2011 up to 400 cultivars had been named. The list of cultivars includes Barcelona, Butler, Casina, Clark Cosford, Daviana, Delle Langhe, England, Ennis, Fillbert, Halls Giant, Jemtegaard, Kent Cob, Lewis, Tokolyi, Tonda Gentile, Tonda di Giffoni, Tonda Romana, Wanliss Pride, and Willamette. It also includes Polish hazelnuts cultivars: Kataloński and Webba Cenny.
Some of these are grown for specific qualities of the nut including large nut size, and early and late fruiting cultivars, whereas other are grown as pollinators. The majority of commercial hazelnuts are propagated from root sprouts. Some cultivars are of hybrid origin between common hazel and filbert.
Corylus avellana occurs from Ireland and the British Isles south to Iberia, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, north to central Scandinavia, and east to the central Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and northwestern Iran.
According to the New Sunset Western Garden Book, the European hazelnut is among the most widely grown hazelnut plants for commercial nut production.
American hazelnut · Colchian Hazel · Beaked hazelnut · Himalayan hazelnut · Siberian hazelnut · Filbert · Hazel
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Corylus avellana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
