Hazel - is it a shrub or a tree? Description of hazel and photos

A native of Asia Minor, hazel (hazel) spread in the center of Europe, the forests of the Caucasus, America and Canada. This representative of the Birch family, thanks to its unique taste and excellent decorativeness, has long won the respect of gardeners around the world. Derived cultures, also known as hazelnuts, are grown commercially in the southern regions. Wild thickets are found in the forests of the Southern Urals and the Perm region, the mountains of the Caucasus. Today, let's talk about what hazel is, is it a shrub or a tree, how is it grown and used? We learn about the species and distribution of this plant on the planet, about the subtleties of caring for it, increasing its yield and decorative qualities.

Hazel: Is it a shrub or a tree?

Hazel unites the genus of shrubby, but among more than 20 species of its representatives there are trees. For example, a bear nut, the speech of which will go further, is a magnificent specimen of a tree, slender and tall, with a beautiful crown shape. But most hazel species are still shrubs, wild forms of which form a thick underbrush in broad-leaved forests. The most common and high economic value is hazel forest, or common hazel. The history of the emergence of the word "hazel" is interesting. This originally Russian name originated from the noticed similarity of the shape of the bush leaf with the shape of the body of the lake fish of bream, known since ancient times to the breadwinner Rusich.

What does the hazel look like?

The overwhelming majority of hazel-tree species refers to deciduous shrubs with large rounded leaves of magnificent saturated green color. Leshchina gravitates to warm, moistened fertile soils of broad-leaved forests and perfectly coexists with their permanent inhabitants: oaks, elms, maples, predominating in the undergrowth and often forming a solid wall. Wild species of hazel are branched shrubs with a large number of stems from the rhizome. In height, they reach 3-5 meters. Bush can grow vegetatively (offsprings and cuttings) or seeds - nuts. Begin to bear fruit for 6-7 years with seed reproduction, for the 4th year - with vegetative reproduction. In summer the hazel bush is easy to identify on leaves that have an oval shape and are adorned along the edge with small denticles and a sharp tip. The hazel leaf has a slightly rough texture to the touch.

In general, the hazel-tree culture is a shrub of 5-6-meter height with an even bark, the color of which varies from grayish to terracotta-brown hues. Young shoots are usually painted in gray-green tones, interspersed with small yellowish specks. Young shoots in appearance are similar to lime shoots, differ only by a fairly thick pubescence. It is not difficult to mix shoots of a hazel and with an elm. And the leaves and bark of them are very similar in color and texture. But there are differences. The elm, like a real tree, always has only one trunk, and the young growth of the hazel is plentiful, which is typical of shrubs. In addition, the hazelnut has oval gray-green kidneys, while the elm has reddish and pointed spines.

Features of the view

Hazel - a shrub or tree belonging to monoecious plants, but with the separate formation of male and female flowers in the same culture. Male flowers-earrings are collected in soft yellowish inflorescences, similar to birch or alder earrings. Planted in June-July, in the fall they are already clearly visible and dissolve early in the spring, as soon as the plant hibernates. The wind picks up and carries pollen.

Inflorescences female are practically not visible. Composed of small, tightly pressed flowers to each other, they are inside special buds, also formed in the previous season. During flowering leaf scales covering the inflorescences move apart, allowing you to catch the pollen, carried by the wind, a bundle of bright red stigmas.

Types of hazel

The species of hazel, numbering almost 20 species, is represented by diverse cultures. They are all different, but many species are distinguished by high frost resistance and longevity. The hazel is unpretentious, grows on different soils, but develops more successfully and fructifies on more fertile soils. Regardless of the species, hazel (this shrub or tree) is hygrophilous, but it does not need surplus water. In its bulk, it is able to tolerate a slight shading, but in open solar areas, the decorativeness and yield of hazelnut are the highest. Here are some types of hazel.

Common hazelnut

This species is represented by a large multi-stem shrub up to 4-6 meters in height with a wide sprawling crown. A special feature of the species is the flowering of the plant before the leaves blossom. That's why bees like hazel. Golden hazel dellows, appearing long before the massive flowering of trees and shrubs, help bees to restore strength after a long winter. The leaves of hazelnut are matte-green, on the back side are light, in the autumn they turn yellow. The growth of hazel is uneven. In the early years it develops slowly. At the 5th-6th year, it sharply grows, forming a lot of young shoots. In nature, hazel nut is common throughout the European territory of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, Western Europe and the Caucasus.

Bear nut, or hazelnut tree

Bear nut is a representative of tree-like ones, which is knocked out of the common system of shrubby-congeners. This is an average tree with a height of up to 15-20 meters and with a crown diameter of 6-8 meters, which has a slender, beautiful trunk.

The magnificent broad- crowned tree crown is beautiful and distinct from the crowns of other species of dense dark green foliage, blossoming very early and long lasting on the branches. The hazel-tree is a tree covered with a whitish-gray bark, leaving narrow plates. Bear nut grows quickly, shade-tolerant and frost-resistant, it does not fear drought, but it develops better on humus-fertilized soils. Fruits - nuts of a peculiar kind, with a gentle wrapper, cut into thin serrated segments. The hazel-tree is a rare tree, although undemanding culture: it adapts easily, its life expectancy reaches 200 years, reproduces by layers and seeds. Wild hazel is a tree that is found in the Caucasus and the Balkans, in Asia Minor. Tree-like hazel is a rare visitor in broad-leaved mountain forests. In Russia, culture is protected in reserves. Bear nut is decorative, perfectly suited for decorating streets and avenues, is effective in linear plantings.

Lombard nut (large hazel)

Monumental high hazel, bushes with magnificent straight branches of gray color, growing to 10 meters in height. The leaves are rounded and jagged at the edges. Lombard nut - the culture is thermophilic, its winter hardiness is low. Cultivated since ancient times as a nut-tree bush, hazel is large in the Balkans and in Asia Minor.

The bush produces dense pubescent pubescent shoots. The leaves of this culture are broadly oval, almost round to 10-12 cm in diameter, at the base heart-shaped, ending with a short and sharp apex. A great decoration is large male earrings, reaching ten centimeters. Fruits form bored rosettes, in which they can be up to 8 pieces, protected by a fluffy tubular wrapper.

Lombard nut is the ancestor of cultural cultivars of hazelnut, which are of industrial importance. It excellently develops on fertilized fertile, air-permeable soils and is often used in landscaping as a decorative shrub.

Redwood form of hazel

Such forms of hazel are very effective due to the unusual color of the foliage and represent a multi-stem, high (up to 4 meters) shrub with dark purple large leaves, a red fruit wrapper and the core of the nut, painted in pink tones. Red-leafed hazel-bush is extremely decorative. But he is a true southerner, and the harsh winters of temperate Russian latitudes are fatal for these hazel species. However, warming for the winter gives good results: the plant survives, but does not bloom and does not bear fruit. Leaving behind itself only decorative function, it creates on a site a unique entourage.

Manchu haze

Frost-proof and very shadow-tolerant hazel Manchurian is widespread in the Far East, Primorye, Korea, and North China. It is a shrub up to 4-5 m tall with multiple highly branching shoots. It is famous for the healing properties of fruits and decorative qualities: the bark of brown tones, densely pubescent young shoots, broad soft leaves - dark green in summer, gaining bright orange or luxurious golden tones in the autumn. The fruit of the Manchurian hazel is a peaked nut, which is valued in Chinese medicine for its excellent anti-inflammatory qualities.

Hazelnut cherry

Shrub, reaching a three-meter height, with a dense, spreading crown. Hazelnut cherry has its name due to a change in the color shades of foliage for one vegetative period. Leaves of unusual shape, broad obovate with three prongs on the apex at dissolution have a terracotta tint, in the summer - juicy dark green tones, and a golden-orange palette envelops hazel grouse in autumn. The hazelnut multifoliate excellently tolerates even a severe drought, is frost-resistant, and has an excess of early fruit bearing. Kind of light-loving, but some shade tolerates calmly. Distribution has received in the east of Siberia, in Asia, in the Far Eastern regions of Russia. It occurs in the undergrowth of mixed and pine forests, as well as on fringes, felling, on the slopes of the hills, forming impassable thickets.

Chamomile Hornet

A lush, multi-barrel shrub that does not exceed three meters in height was named after the outer tubular wrapper of the fruit, wrapping it around and twisting into a tube resembling a small horn. On the pubescent legs are single or paired fruits. Nuts are large (up to 1.5 cm), edible, but poorly separated from the wrapper. Kind of frost-resistant and unpretentious.

Cultivated since 1745. In nature, the plant is distributed in the eastern part of the North American states.

Application

Hazel is magnificent as an ornamental plant. It is used in alleys and hedges. But in the southern regions, hazelnut is grown as a food crop. Walnut hazelnuts are a product of high nutritional value. It concentrates the necessary for the body substances: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, virtually all groups of vitamins, as well as a number of macro- and microelements and their unique compounds. In the food industry, the walnut is traditionally popular due to its high nutritional value and excellent taste. It is indispensable in the production of confectionery and all sorts of sweets, it is used as a filler in the manufacture of chocolate, creams, glaze and caramel. Whole fried hazelnuts are a favorite delicacy.

Types of hazel plants (wild and cultivated) have excellent decorative qualities and are endowed with delicious and healthy fruits.