American hazelnut Corylus americana valuable Habitat Garden Plant
American hazelnut Corylus americana (filberts) are a valuable shrub in the habitat garden, providing food and breeding sites for backyard wildlife. American hazelnut is native to eastern North America from Maine west to Saskatchewan and North Dakota, south to eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas and south to Georgia. For details on native distribution, please see USDA Plants Profile.
The American filbert (corylus americana) can grow to 8-12′ tall with a crown spread of 10′, creating a dense privacy screen, perfect for a hedgerow and as nesting sites for birds. The nuts of the American hazelnut have a higher nutritional value than acorns and beechnuts, making them a valuable food source for wildlife.
American hazelnut Corylus americana is an easy plant to grow. It’s drought tolerant, spreading by rhizomes into colonies to form thickets. It will do well if planted along a woodland edge or in dry, full-sun conditions and can survive most conditions except damp clay soils. Hazelnuts grow naturally as shrub form plants but may be trained as single trunk trees. Tree forming a hazelnut is common practice among farmers in order to make it easier to harvest the nuts.
Male and female flowers are separate but both are found on a single plant with the female flowers near the end of the twigs. The tiny bright red stigma female flower is almost completely enclosed by bracts. Male flowers are in the form of catkins. The flowers provide a food source for bees.
Filberts have a few requirements in order to preform well in a habitat garden. They prefer well drained, loamy soil that is a little on the acidic side. Their rhizomes roots are shallow, therefore they take up most of their moisture and nutrients in the top 3-4′ of soil. This is an important feature to note on hazelnuts when keeping them healthy long term. Nutrients in the form of leaf litter or fertilizers come from above the plant, not deep roots below.
Another important feature to note with American hazelnut Corylus americana is that they require a second planting of a different variety for cross pollination in order to produce a nut crop. You will need to plant two shrubs, preferably from different sources, in order to produce hazelnuts.
Twigs, leaves, twigs and catkins are browsed by rabbits, moose and deer while the male catkins provide winter food for wild turkey and ruffed grouse.
Interesting green sheath surrounds maturing nut as they develop and the fall color can be coppery-red.
The edible nuts that mature in September-October and are eaten by deer, squirrels, foxes,northern bobwhite, turkey, woodpeckers, ruffed grouse, and pheasants.
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you had me hoping to find some in the local soil and water conservation catalog. no luck there so I’ll be looking elsewhere. I think my chipmunk friends would appreciate it.
wiseacre recently posted..the frozen waterfalls in Stone Valley
They are native but not too common. Nearly Natives carries them and they send terrific plants. I had to order mine. There won’t be any nuts left, they all get eaten! And the bees do like the flowers so it’s a win-win sort of plant.
It is a great plant to have! thank you for the information
fer recently posted..The calla lily is sprouting early!
I’ve got one lone hazelnut planted in pretty heavy clay soil…it’s hanging in there, but it’s not terribly happy. We’ll see if it does well enough to justify putting in more!
UrsulaV recently posted..Well- I’ll be damned
It’s probably not going to do great in heavy clay. Mine is in pine woods, filtered sun but the soil is loam/clay. It’s doing outstanding, but I did move it out of a heavier clay where it wasn’t doing too hot.
Great post Karyl! I should love to try this along my forest edge. I hope it will not get eaten before it has a chance to grow!