Clark's Oregon Wildflower Blog: A Nut is Born

For the past few weeks, I have been reminded that our mild winter continues as the purple crocus pop up and the daffodils reach full bloom. Native plants like Indian Plum are also blooming. Then it hits me as I reach for the Cetrizine hydrochloride pills: the hazelnut tree pollen is back! It gives me fits every year as nature takes its course and the pollen is cast to the wind and sticks to me like a dusting of flour. I do love our little neck of the woods here in western Oregon but it is also the hazelnut orchard capital of the Northwest, and those of us with allergies do pay for that! But I still savor just about anything with hazelnuts, from cookies to coffee, so I grin and bear it between sneezes and try not to go nuts.

A few of last year's harvest from our Hazel tree.

Hazelnuts come from the deciduous Hazel tree which is in the genus Corylus. There are fewer than 20 species in the genus and only one is native to western Oregon, the Western or California Hazel (Corylus cornuta var. californica). Most orchards in our area are growing cultivars of Corylus cornuta. Because the nuts are so popular with birds and squirrels, as well as humans, the trees have spread outside of orchards, so you may have one growing in your backyard or might see them in our local natural areas. The naturalized Hazels tend to be large shrubs rather than trees.

Hazelnuts (or filberts as they are sometimes called) and humans go way back. There is evidence of hazelnut harvesting and processing some 9000 years ago in Scotland. I wonder if those natives had allergies?! On the bright side, the nuts are very nutritious, are easy to grow and harvest, and they keep well after harvest. According to OSU, the first planted hazelnut trees in Oregon were at Scottsburg in 1858. Currently, there are about 35,000 acres of cultivated trees in Oregon. Imagine how much pollen that is!

But more relevant to this post are the tiny female flowers on the hazel tree that emerge shortly after the pollen begins to rain down. This year they appeared about two weeks ago (2/10/2015).

In late winter, the trees begin to produce male catkins, which around here usually open up by the first week in February. Upon opening, that nasty yellow pollen is released to the air. Meanwhile, the tiny pinkish flowers emerge on the twigs near the catkins. These flowers look like miniature sea anemones and are about the size of a pencil eraser. The flowers draw moisture from the air, making them sticky and when pollen from the catkins lands on it, a nut is born, so to speak! The nut grows through summer and is ready to harvest in the early fall.

Modern hazelnut harvesting is a fascinating process unto itself, but I won't dwell on it here. You can look that up if interested. In the mean time, I'm tired of sneezing, so I'm heading out to get some hazelnut ice cream!