Corylus avellana is autochthonous across all the south-west counties. Indeed, Cornwall especially is a stronghold for it on its raised Cornish hedges. One of our commonest and most important native trees.
Hazel is often coppiced, but when left to grow, trees can reach a height of 12m and live for up to 80 years (if coppiced, hazel can live for several hundred years). Hazel wood can be twisted or knotted, and as such it historically had many uses. These included interwoven cleft-hazel hurdles or used to support clay-daub walled buildings "wattle-and-daub", other uses include net stakes, water-divining sticks, thatching spars and furniture. Hazel was also valued for its nuts, or "cobs". Today, hazel coppice has become an important management strategy in the conservation of woodland habitats for wildlife.
Hazel leaves provide food for the caterpillars of moths, including the large emerald, small white wave, barred umber and nut-tree tussock. In managed woodland where hazel is coppiced, the open, wildflower-rich habitat supports species of butterfly, particularly fritillaries. Coppiced hazel also provides shelter for ground-nesting birds, such as the nightingale, nightjar, yellowhammer and willow warbler.
Hazel has long been associated with the dormouse (also known as the hazel dormouse). Not only are hazelnuts eaten by dormice to fatten up for hibernation, but in spring the leaves are a good source of caterpillars, which dormice also eat.
Hazelnuts are also eaten by woodpeckers, nuthatches, tits, wood pigeons, jays and small mammals. Hazel flowers provide early pollen as a food for bees. However, bees find it difficult to collect and can only gather it in small loads. This is because the pollen of wind-pollinated hazel is not sticky and each grain actually repels against another.
The trunks are often covered in mosses, liverworts and lichens, and the fiery milkcap fungus grows in the soil beneath.
At Trebrown Nurseries we maintain our own registered select seed stands on Trebrown Farm, which remain the only seed stand registered in Cornwall. Corylus avellana is not a FRM controlled species. But is FRM Certified under the voluntary scheme.
