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| ## beaked hazelnut {#beaked-hazelnut .Title-Header}                   |
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| *Corylus cornuta* Marsh.                                              |
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| Plant Symbol = COCO6                                                  |
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####### *Contributed By: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & the Biota of North America Program*

####### 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.
![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.6944444444444446in"
height="1.7965277777777777in"}

*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.
\<http://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.
\<http://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\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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