Male Catkins

Leaves

Fruits

By Sínéad

            Grows wild in woods and hedgrows .Any woodland area covered by a woodland of hazel trees is usually called hazel scrub. Can be cultivated as hedging and for its nuts.

          Alternate, up to 12cm long hairy on top and under leaf. Round shaped. Turns yellow in autumn.

hazel leaf

          Hazel is the first tree to flower   in Winter/early Spring. Male Catkins  are dangling and yellow. Female flowers are in a small bud with a tuft of red at the top.

         Egg shaped nuts. Pale green at first. They change to a woody brown when ripe. Nuts are enclosed in a leafy cap. Hazel nuts are popular at Hallowe'en Squirrels also love hazel nuts.

nut by Sínéad

        Smooth grey-brown with small raised patches.Freshly cut hazel timber is white but darkens to pale brown.

            The Hazel tree is growing in Ireland since just after the Ice Age. Coll is the Irish for Hazel and it is   the name of the letter C in the Ogham  alphabet. In Mount Sandel fragments of Hazel nuts were found where  people  lived  8,500  years ago. These Stone Age people  ate meat  and  fish and gathered nuts, fruit and berries from the woods. Some people  say  that  if  you  put  a hazel nut in  your  pocket it  will  protect you  from rheumatism  and  lumbago.