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Turkish Hazel - Corylus colurna

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Species Description

Widely planted as a street tree. Other names include: Byzantine filbert.

Stace 4:

Corylus colurna L. Turkish Hazel.

Tree to 27m with single trunk; leaves narrower, more acuminate and more lobed, lighter or brighter green, and with longer petiole than in C. avellana; male catkins ≤12cm; nuts ≤2cm, usually distinctly flattened, with thicker shell than in C. avellana, with girdle of deeply laciniate bracts much longer than nut and becoming strongly reflexed when dry; (2n=28). Neophyte-survivor; grown in plantations on dunes in South Lancashire for many years, now being planted as a street tree in Britain North to Central Scotland; South East Europe and South West Asia.

Key:

  • Bracts around ripe nut forming more or less bell-shaped structure not reaching or not narrowed beyond nut apex
  • Bracts about 2x as long as ripe nut, lacinate >1/2 way to base, with long shaggy hairs on outside nearly to apex

Useful Links:

Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora

Wikipedia

Kew

GBIF

NBN