With a long and mild start to the winter here in the mountains, the squirrels are still active and busy foraging for their winter stores. Which naturally got me thinking about hazelnuts – a squirrel’s dream fodder! So this musing is about this remarkable shrub: Corylus avellana.
Have you ever witnessed a Hazel in bloom? I have to admit that whilst I have always noticed and admired her pendulous male catkins, it took me until early this year to notice and photograph her female flowers.
Hazel (Corylus avellana) is a member of the birch family (Betulaceae) and is a common feature of our rural landscape, being present in thickets, vallons and hedges and often in zones where pubescent oaks grow. She is also present with her multiple stems at a sacred place at the foot of the mountain where Marcel and I were married, bordering the once water-filled canals of our old sawmills that used water to drive their turbines in the early 1900’s. One of the Hazels that grows there bears witness to the ancient and now abandoned art of coppicing.
Hazel has a gentle presence at my home. She gifts us flexible, smooth, strong and upright shoots that we use in the garden as tutors for our tomatoes and beans and she is my ‘sturdy staff’ for herding my unruly chickens. This summer, I also experienced first-hand her water divining power, using a forked twig to efficiently find underground water on our land.
What is more, according to the Celtic tree calendar, I am born in the period of Hazel, and I have long felt an affinity to this wonderful ‘tree’ and her message of discretion and patience to the world.
Hazel is monoecious, producing male and female flowers on the same shrub but did you know that they are self-incompatible? Being wind-pollinated, Hazel will only produce fruits if there are other compatible hazels in the vicinity (ideally located within 30m). She needs other hazel kin in order to produce her fruits.
With the destruction of hedges and thickets, the distances between compatible hazels increases, thereby affecting the potential for pollination. One lone Hazel that I regularly encounter on my walk with hounds has never produced nuts in all the years I have lived in my mountain home. Now I know why – she no longer has kin within wind-reach in her vicinity. And yet she continues to flourish and bloom each year, holding the hope – without attachment – that some fruitfulness will occur through her presence. Discretion is Hazel’s motto.
Hazel’s male flowers, the pendulous catkins are more showy and appear first. They are present at the beginning of winter the previous year when the leaves fall and towards the end of winter, before the new leaves appear, they lengthen and start to release their pollen grains. Hazel’s female flowers are few and discreet, emerging from tiny bud scales and arranged with short erect flaming feathery pink/red styles poking out of the buds. Each male catkin can produce up to 4 million pollen grains but only a few will meet their match on those female styles of a neighbouring shrub. The magic between them takes place very early in the year, whilst winter still has a tight grip. At this time, wind pollination is the necessary strategy as insects haven’t yet become active.
Hazel is patient. In a phenomenon rare for the plant world, Hazel fertilization occurs several months after pollinisation! Hazel’s ovaries are not yet formed at the time that the pollen grains contact the flaming pink styles and begin to migrate their way inwards.
Once pollinated, Hazel then goes to sleep! Her reproductive organs enter a period of dormancy for 4 to 5 months! It is only then, during that quiet, creative resting phase, that her ovaries form and fertilization can finally take place. This is highly unusual in the plant world when the flower-to-seed process is usually swift, with ovaries ripe-and-ready as soon as flowering begins.
Hazel takes her time to get everything in place. Then, when she is ready, and fertilization finally occurs, she then develops and matures her nuts over a period of six short weeks, to be ready in autumn for the squirrels, dormice, jays and woodpeckers who rely on her nuts for their winter energy provisions.
Some plants have large showy, almost ostentatious ‘look at me’ blooms which then rapidly yield a multitude of pinprick-tiny seeds. Hazel is the reverse – in her quiet way, she blooms almost without being seen, only revealing her small and simple flowers to those who take the time and effort to stop and seek. And then, after a long wait, she reveals her delicious fruits – large and nutritious hazelnuts, providing important reserves of important fatty acids, iron, vitamin E, potassium, zinc, magnesium and more…
Hazel’s nutritional storehouses have been known and appreciated since the dawn of time. Archaeological evidence shows that in Neolithic times, hazelnuts were relied on as an important, rich and portable food source. More recent research shows that hazelnut skins and shells are also important sources of antioxidant phenolics.
In therapy and cosmetic applications, hazelnut oil is a beautiful fixed oil for the skin and one that is often overlooked by aromatherapists. With a composition resembling that of olive oil, it is fine, penetrating and suitable for even the most fragile skins.
Indigenous to Europe and the Caucasus, Hazel’s inclusion in lore, medicine and magic is widespread. It is with a Hazel wand that St Patrick was said to drive the snakes out of Ireland. In the Druidic tradition, Hazel has a sacred place as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge and she has long been venerated in different European countries where she grows. She is part of the Ogham alphabet and some go as far to say that the staff of Asclepius may be a Hazel branch.
The Findhorn Essence of Hazel helps those who have difficulty in letting go of past attachments and who are creatively ‘stuck’. She brings a quiet sense of lightness and liberty and the freedom to explore new directions.
So what messages does Hazel convey to me today?
- Having a long-term plan enables you to work steadily and progressively towards your goal.
- Taking a pause or sabbatical is positive and enriching and provides the creativity to move mountains.
- Success comes through collaboration – even if you can ‘do it all yourself’, there is a special magic in the cross pollination of ideas and dreams shared with others.
- Humility and discretion can lead to more reward than ostentation and appearances – as long as you know your own game plan, you don’t have to be noticed to make a difference.
