Corylus americana Seeds | American Hazelnut
LATIN NAME: Corylus americana
COMMON NAME: American Hazelnut, American Filbert
Plant Profile
The American hazelnut is a suckering shrub of the birch family, two to three metres tall, native to the understorey and woodland edges of eastern North America. It spreads by underground runners to form thickets, and it is one of the first shrubs to flower in late winter, with dangling male catkins and tiny crimson female flowers on the same plant.
The nuts are smaller than those of the European hazel, with a thicker shell, but they are sweet and the plant is far more resistant to eastern filbert blight, the disease that has devastated European hazel plantings in North America.
Science & Biotechnology
Breeding programmes in Oregon and New Jersey have crossed the American species with Corylus avellana to combine nut size with blight resistance. The resistance is inherited from a small number of loci, and molecular markers now allow seedlings to be screened before they are planted out, which shortens a breeding cycle that otherwise takes a decade.
The shrub is wind-pollinated and largely self-incompatible, with a sporophytic system that rejects pollen from the same plant. That is why a single bush often crops poorly and why growers plant two or more different selections together.
Uses & Benefits
Nuts are eaten fresh, roasted or ground, and they are pressed for oil. They ripen in August and September, and the race against squirrels and jays is the main practical difficulty: nets or early picking, with the nuts finished on a tray indoors, are the usual answers.
The wood is flexible and was used for hurdles, walking sticks and tool handles. The shrub is also planted for wildlife cover and for erosion control on slopes, since the roots bind soil and the thickets shelter ground-nesting birds. The shells are thin enough that a nutcracker is unnecessary, and the kernel comes out whole more often than with the European hazel. Hazelnut oil goes rancid quickly and is best kept cold and dark, and the pressed cake left after oil extraction is fed to livestock in the producing regions.
Growing from Seed
Seed needs cold and should be stratified for three to four months at 2 to 5°C, then sown in spring. Fresh seed sown in autumn in a sheltered bed is simpler and usually germinates the following April.
Plants are set two to three metres apart, in sun or light shade, and they tolerate poor, dry soil once established. Because they sucker, a mown strip around the bush keeps the thicket in check. Nuts begin at three to four years and peak at eight to ten, and pruning out the oldest canes keeps the bush productive. Seedlings vary widely in nut size, so named selections are propagated by layering or by root suckers. A mature bush yields two to four kilograms of nuts in a good year, though the crop varies sharply with spring weather.
Our Take
A tough native shrub that earns its place for nuts, hedges and wildlife, and the most reliable hazel to try where blight is present.
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