Hazel

The leaf

The leaf is rounded, with a heart-shaped base and a short, abrupt tip. The edge has double teeth. It is hairy and rough to the touch, especially underneath.

The bark

The stems are slender, smooth and a shiny greyish-brown, with small pale horizontal marks. Over the years they crack a little, but they rarely grow thick.

The fruit

Hazelnuts come in groups of two to four, each wrapped in a green husk with ragged edges, like a handkerchief. They ripen in late summer and turn brown and hard.

The flower

It flowers in the depths of winter, on bare branches. The male catkins, yellow and dangling, stand out from afar; the female flowers are tiny, like buds with a few red threads at the tip.

1. Jan
2. Feb
3. Mar
4. Apr
5. May
6. Jun
7. Jul
8. Aug
9. Sep
10. Oct
11. Nov
12. Dec

Habit

It is usually a large shrub with many straight stems growing from the same stool. It seldom forms a single-trunked tree.

Where it grows

It grows wild in damp mountain woods, in the understorey of oak and beech woods and beside mountain streams, mostly in the northern half of Catalonia. It is grown as a crop in the Camp de Tarragona.