Credit: Robert Read / WTML
Leaves
Round to oval, doubly toothed, hairy and pointed at the tip. Leaves turn yellow before falling in autumn.
Hazel (Corylus avellana)
Catkins resembling lambs tails, and late-summer nuts. Hazel is one of the most useful trees for its bendy stems and as a conservation saviour. And its nuts are loved by people, squirrels and hazel dormice.
Quick facts
Common name: hazel
Scientific name: Corylus avellana
Family: Betulaceae
Origin: native
Hazel is often coppiced, but when left to grow, trees can reach a height of 12m and live for up to 80 years (if coppiced, hazel can live for several hundred years). It has a smooth, grey-brown, bark, which peels with age, and bendy, hairy stems. Leaf buds are oval, blunt and hairy.
Look out for: leaves which are soft to the touch as a result of the downy hairs on the underside. Hazel is often coppiced.
Identified in winter by: its nuts, which are each held in a short, leafy husk which encloses about three quarters of the nut. Small, green catkins can be present in autumn.
What does hazel look like?
Credit: Ross Hoddinott / naturepl.com
Flowers
Hazel is monoecious, meaning that both male and female flowers are found on the same tree, although hazel flowers must be pollinated by pollen from other hazel trees. The yellow male catkins appear before the leaves and hang in clusters from mid-February. Female flowers are tiny and bud-like with red styles.
Credit: Ben Lee / WTML
Fruits
Once pollinated by wind, the female flowers develop into oval fruits which hang in groups of one to four. They mature into a nut with a woody shell surrounded by a cup of leafy bracts (modified leaves).
Watch hazel budburst
Not to be confused with:
English elm (Ulmus minor ‘Atinia’) which has similar leaves, though English elm leaves are roughly hairy, unlike soft hazel leaves. Elm leaves also have an asymmetric leaf base.
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Credit: Laurie Campbell / WTML
Where to find hazel
Hazel grows across much of Europe, parts of north Africa and western Asia. In the UK it's often found in the understorey of lowland oak, ash or birch woodland, and in scrub and hedgerows.
Value to wildlife
Hazel leaves provide food for the caterpillars of moths, including the large emerald, small white wave, barred umber and nut-tree tussock. In managed woodland where hazel is coppiced, the open, wildflower-rich habitat supports species of butterfly, particularly fritillaries. Coppiced hazel also provides shelter for ground-nesting birds, such as the nightingale, nightjar, yellowhammer and willow warbler.
However, note that coppice management of hazel is not recommended in all contexts. Important habitats with unique, disturbance-sensitive bryophytes and lichens such as the ancient Atlantic hazel woods of Scotland's rainforest zone could be damaged by the introduction of a coppicing regime. Specialist management advice should be sought for this type of hazel woodland.
Hazel has long been associated with the dormouse (also known as the hazel dormouse). Not only are hazelnuts eaten by dormice to fatten up for hibernation, but in spring the leaves are a good source of caterpillars, which dormice also eat.
Hazelnuts are also eaten by woodpeckers, nuthatches, tits, wood pigeons, jays and small mammals. Hazel flowers provide early pollen as a food for bees. However, bees find it difficult to collect and can only gather it in small loads. This is because the pollen of wind-pollinated hazel is not sticky and each grain actually repels against another.
The trunks are often covered in mosses, liverworts and lichens, and the fiery milkcap fungus grows in the soil beneath.
Mythology and symbolism
Hazel has a reputation as a magical tree. A hazel rod is supposed to protect against evil spirits, as well as being used as a wand and for water-divining. In some parts of England, hazelnuts were carried as charms and/or held to ward off rheumatism. In Ireland, hazel was known as the 'Tree of Knowledge’, and in medieval times it was a symbol of fertility.
Uses
Hazel wood can be twisted or knotted, and as such it historically had many uses. These included thatching spars, net stakes, water-divining sticks, hurdles and furniture. Hazel was also valued for its nuts, or 'cobs'.
Today, hazel coppice has become an important management strategy in the conservation of woodland habitats for wildlife. The resulting timber is used in lots of ways and is becoming increasingly popular as pea sticks and bean poles used by gardeners.
Hazel was grown in the UK for large-scale nut production until the early 1900s. Cultivated varieties (known as cob nuts) are still grown in Kent, but most of our hazelnuts are now imported.
Trees fight climate change
They aren't just sources of food, medicines and materials. The carbon-locking qualities of trees and woods are crucial in the fight against climate change.
Find out howThreats
The species is not known to suffer from any particular pest or disease, but it may occasionally be attacked by aphids, gall mites and sawflies. Coppiced hazel is susceptible to deer damage if not protected.
