Short History of hazelnut (or hazel), flowers Hazelnut:
It (coming soon) Spring! The first flowers link the tips of their petals. In the garden, hellebores, winter viburnum and even snowdrops feed our impatience to return to milder weather and rustling of fragrance, color and life. In the forest, everything still seems asleep. Yet again, the first flowers are here! Tiny, almost invisible ... But actually hatched!
Get close groves and observe: the flowering season of hazel!
Click on the photos this article to show in greater
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| picture of a flower and kitten hazel |
Warning: I now use the "read more" for the Notes feature. So to discover the story behind the hazel, click below.
Walnut (flower, kitten and hazel) Corylus avallana (Corylacée)
The hazel is a tree (shrub?) of the family corylacées cleverly called Corylus avallana . In the family Corylacée can find the charm and charm-hop. It includes trees that occur in the late winter kittens, and whose fruit is an achene. ( Note: the classification APG III 2009, the family Corylaceae no longer exists. The hazel is now classified in the family Betuaceae, subfamily Coryloïdeae. I'll let you choose between these two classifications.)
Flowers from Hazel: a plant self-sterile hermaphrodite but (protandry)
The flowering of hazel occurs between January and March (depending on region and variety), while the leaves are still reduced to the status of buds. Twigs of hazel are adorned with long catkins yellow-green browning throughout their maturation. These kittens are well known male flowers of the plant. If the kittens are spot by far, the female flowers are much more subtle: they grow on the same shrub as kittens, but only on some branches, tiny purple stars that hatch at the end of a sort of fluffy bud .
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| Pollination Filbert: purple flowers and female catkins or male flowers (hermaphrodite plant, but self-sterile) |
Another Flower Photo hazel (less blooming) in following the link
The hazel therefore presents male flowers and female flowers on the same specimen. It is hermaphrodite, yet it is also self-sterile : If you wish to harvest nuts, you will need to plant several hazel garden. presence of male and female flowers on the same shrub, and self-incompatibility? This paradox has always challenged. So I searched the explanation: hermaphroditism Filbert is simply a sequential hermaphroditism (or sequential) . The flowers mature males do not thrive quite at the same time the female flowers. The plant can therefore by s'autofertiliser correctly. In the case of hazelnut, it is called protandry : what are the male flowers before female flowers appear. (The reverse - mature female before male-called protogynous. These characteristics of sequential hermaphroditism is found in other species as well as the vegetable of the animal, as earthworms, slugs ... The nature of creativity is definitely fascinating!)
To view a video on the pollination of flowers of hazel , follow the link.
Hazel: kittens and flowers with hazelnut
The hazelnut is not the fruit itself. It is an achene, which contains a single kernel, and this almond, rich in sugar and oil, which is the seed / fruit. (The fruit is called "nuts".)
And now that everything is ready, especially the next crop of nuts. In a few weeks, while the fruits begin to form just the first hazel leaves appear. Throughout the summer, hazelnut remain protected in a tubular casing: the involucre. Then, the involucre is dry and open. hazel, which the kernel is still wrapped in a white hull, will turn brown and harden until they detach very easily.
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| Photo hazelnut: nut oilseeds , Fall harvest |
Who eats nuts? squirrel Balagne weevil or human?
If you want to produce your own nuts, you may have to share the harvest with some other fans: squirrels in particular, are very fond and promote seed dispersal forgetting a few knobs here and there. Your hazel is also likely to experience the arrival of some aphids, and more annoying: the presence of a weevil Balagne . The Balagne hazelnuts (Curculio nucum) weevil is an insect (family Curculionidae of ), provided with beautiful black eyes and a long nose or proboscis, equipped with tiny mandibles. With this rostrum that Madame Balagne pierces the soft hazelnut and green spring to lay their eggs. weevil larvae hatch hazelnuts well protected in the shell of the nut wormy, and escape through a small hole visible to the naked eye when the ripe nuts fall to the ground.
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| Click to see a weevil in flight Balagne |
Culture hazel:
And if you decide to provide in the grocery store nuts in your neighborhood, it's likely that the nuts are imported from Turkey, which is the largest producer and importer of nuts. Yet the culture of hazelnuts is relatively easy: the shrub is hardy and present everywhere except on the Mediterranean coast. He appreciates the forest edges, if possible sunny s (or hazel branches in the sun are much more productive in hazelnuts.) It also installs easily hedge natural wilderness as the garden. There are many varieties of ornamental hazel, some with colorful foliage (purple hazel ). Note the existence of a variety of tortuous hazel, very decorative even in winter. (See more tortuous trees: the tortuous beech forest Verzy )
I found use a little radical hazel has planted himself in the garden at the foot of compost pile. Every 3 years, I held a full Coppicing: I cut all the branches a few inches from ground level. He quickly pushes bunch of little branches branched. Branches straight from I use this size to create trellising and garden the natural guardians (guardians tomato, cucumber espaliers ...). For now, my hazel coppicing has experienced 2, and the third is expected in a few semaines.Il does not seem to hold it against me that size, and also carries like a charm.
Hazelnut: dietary and medicinal properties
The hazelnut is a fruit oilseeds. past, we thought it cured the cough. Hazelnut oil is rich in omega 3 . It is part of the oils that help fight against bad cholesterol. She would also participate in the fight against cellular aging and against rheumatism. Not to mention that the magnesium and phosphorus it contains are anti-stress, good for memory.
hazel leaves are harvested at maturity in June. Dried been used in decoction, they would help to heal ulcers, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, through their vasoconstrictor and astringent properties.
Other uses of hazel?
I learned by researching documentation for writing this article that the roots of hazel lived in symbiosis with one of the most famous mushrooms: I named the truffle !
The hazel wood presents interesting mechanical characteristics. Flexible and tough, he once served in basketry and cooperage, but also for the manufacture of agricultural tool handles, sticks, forks ... Its roots were used in marquetry.
hazel bark comes off easily: who has not spent hours as a child to decorate a hazel stick the tip of the knife, removing strips of bark?
hazel bark comes off easily: who has not spent hours as a child to decorate a hazel stick the tip of the knife, removing strips of bark?
The hazel or hazel: a prehistoric and mythical tree
The hazel is a shrub venerable one of the few survivors from the Mesozoic era (- 70 million years). If it has not yet reached the canonical age of horsetail , it nevertheless remains an exceptional longevity. The plant has seen the appearance of early mammals. It accompanies these men since time immemorial, where he started to walk on two legs, and was even one of the dominant species in the Neolithic, covering large areas and displacing place by spruce forests. Hazel helped Neolithic man to survive, providing fruit and wood. It has also fueled their imagination, and thus the hazel bush has become a legend.
The magic functions Filbert:
The magical properties of hazel or hazel was well known to the Celts. Any self-respecting grove sheltered groves of hazel, often a source of guards. Druids there were charging flexible branches of hazel, then used as "magic wands" divination.
Over the centuries, the use of these hazel rods has endured: the divining rod is a rod of hazel, as well as wand witches, fairies and witches.
The hazel is the tree of knowledge and wisdom. Mercury was once offered a stick of hazel men, two snakes coiled around it. This staff has become a symbol of peace and balance, and you know him well: he is our caduceus.
In the countryside, the hazel was often linked to legends and rituals of a sexual nature, probably because of the nuts? Some
anecdotes?
- In some areas, the tradition was that the bride distributes a few knobs on the third day of his marriage: a subtle way
- In the Massif Central, the men were surveyed each spring season, and once they heard the first song toad the first year, they returned home soon hit 8 times without breathing the marriage bed . They were assured that they would be faithful to their wives throughout the year. (A repeat course every spring!)
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Other stories plant? - Mistletoe, history, botany and legend: yet discreet flowering and misunderstood, while in early spring
- The Vicar pennywort: detailed article on this little yellow star, one of the first wildflowers of the year
- The coltsfoot coltsfoot : a cousin of the dandelion, "weed" (not so sure. ..) early
- Photo anemone woods and cultivated hyacinth
And gallery "forest in the detail" of the library
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