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Common hazel

Agnes Monkelbaan / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

Common hazel

Corylus avellana

Common hazel (Corylus avellana), also called cobnut or European filbert, is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub or small tree of European and western-Asian woodland and hedgerow, growing 12 to 20 feet tall with soft, doubly toothed, rounded leaves. It is one of the great wildlife and working plants of the temperate garden: pale-yellow "lambs-tail" male catkins hang all winter and open in late winter before the leaves, and the edible hazelnuts ripen in autumn. Coppiced on a rotation it yields straight poles and, per the Woodland Trust, opens a wildflower-rich woodland floor. The honest catches: it suckers and can become a thicket if left unmanaged, and in North America it is susceptible to Eastern filbert blight, which is why nut growers there favour resistant hybrids.

Climate fit: moderate (48/100)

Structure

Edible

Border

Light

Full sun / Part shade

Water

Moderate water

Mature size

12-20 ft tall · 15 ft apart

Hardy in zones

4a-8b

very cold to frosty winters

AHS heat range

1-8

Plant range authored in AHS heat-zone terms.

Native in Illinois

No

Related products

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Well-suited

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Well-suited

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✓

Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 36 ecoregions - 26 climate-resilient through 2070 · 7 suited today · 3 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.

Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests

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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

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Arizona Mountains forests

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Atlantic coastal pine barrens

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Blue Mountains forests

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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

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Central Tallgrass prairie

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Central-Southern Cascades Forests

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Chilean Matorral

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Colorado Rockies forests

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Educator packet

Plant packet

Common hazel educator packet

Common hazel (Corylus avellana), also called cobnut or European filbert, is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub or small tree of European and western-Asian woodland and hedgerow, growing 12 to 20 feet tall with soft, doubly toothed, rounded leaves. It is one of the great wildlife and working plants of the temperate garden: pale-yellow "lambs-tail" male catkins hang all winter and open in late winter before the leaves, and the edible hazelnuts ripen in autumn. Coppiced on a rotation it yields straight poles and, per the Woodland Trust, opens a wildflower-rich woodland floor. The honest catches: it suckers and can become a thicket if left unmanaged, and in North America it is susceptible to Eastern filbert blight, which is why nut growers there favour resistant hybrids.

Scientific name

Corylus avellana

Plant type

shrub

Hardiness

4a-8b

Light

full-sun, part-shade

Moisture

moderate

Spacing

180 inches