The genus of hazel or hazel combines several dozen species of deciduous shrubs and trees of the Berezov family. Most of them are common in the temperate climatic zone of Eurasia and North America. They are found on the edges, as part of undergrowths of mixed and broad-leaved forests. The main value of hazel is its fruit.. Some species are used in folk medicine, are the raw material of commercial wood.
Botanical Description
Hazel more often is a densely branched bush with a dark gray wrinkled bark and a broad, dense crown. Less commonly, a small tree up to 6–8 m high. Young shoots are yellowish-brown, skeletal branches are long, flexible. The root system is voluminous, powerful, with numerous lateral appendages. Most of them are concentrated near the surface.
Hazel leaves are simple petiolate, bright green, slightly wrinkled, with a slight pubescence. Plates 5–12 cm in size, broadly oval, heart-shaped at the base, with serrated edges and pointed apices. The surface with pronounced feathery veins is noticeably lighter on the underside. Blossom in early May.
Inflorescences are dioecious. Male - in the form of hanging cylindrical earrings of yellowish-green color. They are laid in the autumn period, bloom 1-2 weeks before the leaves appear. Women’s are located in pairs in the bosoms, have the appearance of short thick kidneys with red stigmas.
Fruits ripen in September or late autumn.. Hazelnuts have a round shape, the light seed is surrounded by a dense woody shell-pericarp of a yellowish or brown hue. Each nut is enclosed in a dense light green tubular shell with open notched edges - a plus. In several fruits, their bases usually grow together, forming a fruit brush of 2–5 pieces. When ripe hazel ripen, the bun dries out and the fruits freely fall out of it. Hazel bears fruit from 5–7 years of age.
Walnut tree photophilous, hygrophilous, sensitive to soil fertility. On meager or sandy soils it develops slowly. The yield of hazel is uneven. Usually after 1-3 years of abundant fruiting while maintaining the same weather conditions, a rest period follows: there are very few or no nuts at all.
Classification
In total, there are almost 20 types of hazel, differing in the shape, size and taste of the fruit. Among them there are both wild and breeding varieties, as well as hybrids.
Common
The most common species in Europe. In central Russia, it is found everywhere. Tall dense shrub with grayish-brown bark and spreading crown. The leaves are alternate, large, dark green. Young shoots and the reverse side of the leaves are downy. In the subtropics, the plant blooms in late February, in the temperate zone - in late April. Nuts 1.5–2 cm in size, round or oblong, with a light brown shell. Plyuska with deeply dissected edges.
Manchurian
Far Eastern shade-hardy and frost-resistant appearance. Multi-stemmed shrub up to 4–5 m high with a spreading crown. Young shoots are brown, with a slight pubescence. The bark is dark gray, with cracks. The leaves are dark green, narrower than that of common hazel. Elongated nuts, 2–2.5 cm in size, fruit shell hard, prickly.
Leafy
Frost-resistant species of hazel, common in Siberia and the Far East. Shrub up to 2-3 m tall with a dense, very wide and dense crown. The bark of adult shoots is dark brown. Coarse leaves, heart-shaped at the base, wide. In spring, young foliage has a reddish hue, in the summer it becomes bright green, in the fall it acquires a lemon yellow or orange color. Variegated hazel nuts are yellow, rounded, slightly flattened, with a diameter of 1.5–3 cm.
Tree-like
It has a second name: bear hazel or bear nut. One of the largest species of hazel. It is a slender straight-trunk tree up to 20–25 m high. The bark is light gray; in adult specimens it is peeled off by plates. Crowns of regular pyramidal shape, petiolate leaves, oval, dentate, pointed. Nuts 2.5–3 cm in size, covered with elongated feathery dissected plush of a light green hue. In nature, tree hazel is found in Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, on the Balkan Peninsula.
Lombard nut
The founder of industrial varieties of fruit crops. Distributed in southern Europe, Asia Minor, North America. Shrub up to 7–9 m high with densely branched crown. The bark is dark gray, covered with deep cracks. The leaves are large, oval, weakly lobed, serrated, 10–12 cm long, 5–7 cm wide. Many varieties have purple or purple foliage.. Fruits up to 3 cm in size are surrounded by a dense fleshy bun, cut along the edges. Nuts are distinguished by high taste, larger than other types of hazel.
Application
Hazel is a fruit plant. Nuts of most species are a nutritious product used in cooking. The content of biochemically active substances determines the pharmacological value of the fruit. Along with them, drugs from other parts of the plant are useful for health: leaves, flowers, bark and roots. Large species of wood is of industrial interest.
Wood
Hazel belongs to sapwood. This is an equally dense yellowish, pink or light brown material with a discreet texture. It is characterized by moderate strength, resistance to warping, does not dry out and does not break off under shock loads. The nut is viscous, it is well processed by all types of hand and mechanical tools, it bends, glues, pickles and is ground. Due to the small diameter of the logs in construction, it is almost not used. Scopes of hazel:
- furniture industry;
- production of veneer, finishing panels, floor coverings;
- carpentry and turning products, cutting boards, tool handles, accessories, eco-friendly dishes;
- souvenirs.
Flexible nut shoots are used for weaving baskets, wooden hedges, making hoops and fishing rods.
Medicine
Hazel fruits contain fatty oil, vitamins D, E, group B, organic acids, glycosides, calcium, potassium, iron, cobalt and other minerals. Essential oils, alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids and other biochemically active compounds are found in leaves, flowers, and other parts of the plant. Preparations based on the pulp of nuts, powder of bark and roots, flowers and leaves have versatile therapeutic effects:
- antipyretic;
- anti-inflammatory;
- antimicrobial;
- anti-cancer;
- immunomodulatory;
- blood purifying;
- vasodilator;
- anthelmintic.
Tinctures and teas are used to treat diseases of the digestive tract, fever, bronchitis, pneumonia, nervous disorders, headaches.
Hazelnuts and hazel
Hazelnuts and ordinary hazelnuts are closely related products. The first species combines several cultural forms, originating from the Lombard walnut. They are slightly larger than the others, have a brighter and richer taste, contain more fatty oil, amino acids, minerals and vitamins than wild hazel.
Benefit
In terms of saturation with nutrients, micro and macro elements, organic acids, vitamins, hazel nuts surpass many food products. These fruits are easily absorbed, and the protein and fat in them is enough to serve as a substitute for meat or milk. To provide the body with all the useful substances it needs, it is enough to consume about 150 g of nuts per day. It is necessary to introduce them into the diet with physical or nervous exhaustion, chronic bowel diseases, decreased vision, insufficient immunity, intolerance to lactase or gluten.
Hazel rarely causes allergies, suitable for children, the elderly and weakened people, pregnant women.
Harm
Nuts should not be overused by obese people. This is a very high-calorie product. 100 g of purified kernels contain almost 500 kcal. It is necessary to include them in food in the presence of excess weight in a limited way - no more than 50 g per day.
Harmful fruits of hazel can with chronic cholecystitis, pancreatitis and some forms of gastritis - for the digestion of nuts, the body requires a large number of enzymes. An obstacle to their use may be individual intolerance.
Landing
It is easy to grow a walnut tree in your own garden. If cultivation is planned to produce fruit, it is recommended to plant several specimens at once for successful cross-pollination.
Hazel should be placed in a well-lit area, observing a distance between trees of about 3-4 m. Work carried out in the fall. It is useful to dig the soil in advance by adding 3-4 kg of humus per 1 m² or ½ bucket of rotted manure. Pits for seedlings are prepared with a depth and a width of 65–80 cm. Drainage is made from stones or broken brick with a layer of about 10 cm. A bucket of the mixture is poured from above from equal parts of garden soil, humus, 200 g of wood ash and 20 g of complex nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizer. Pour 10 liters of water. Then a sapling is placed in the hole, sprinkling roots firmly on all sides with earth. There should not be voids between them. The root neck should protrude 1–2 cm above the surface. After planting, the plants are watered again. Trunk circles immediately after planting, it is useful to mulch peat.
Care
Hazelnut care requirements are traditional. The shrub needs regular moisture, loosening the soil, removing weeds and fertilizers.
Hazel must be watered abundantly. In dry or hot weather, bushes require 10-15 liters of water each week, from April to September. Refuse additional moisture is possible only with a large amount of natural precipitation. Adult bushes are watered less often: 1-2 times a month.
Hazel is fed three times per season. In April or May, 20 g nitroammophoski are added to the soil. In the early summer: 200 g of ash mixed with 10 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium salt. At the end of July, it is advisable to add 20 g of superphosphate. Sparse soils can be watered from time to time with manure or compost.
Every year, hazel needs to be pruned. It is necessary to remove drying, diseased or incorrectly growing branches. Old shrubs that have reached the age of 20 can be rejuvenated by cutting off most of the shoots, leaving only 10-centimeter shoots with several growth buds.
Breeding
Seed hazel should not be propagated. This method does not make it possible to preserve the varietal characteristics of the plant. The main methods are vegetative.
Young hazel trees can be planted with green cuttings, cutting off shoots that did not have time to lumber in the summer. For rooting, take lengths of 12-15 cm with a pair of leaflets. They plant the material in greenhouses - in a mixture of garden soil and peat, contain it at a temperature of + 20–25 ° C, and water it daily. By the fall, they get the finished material.
Adult bushes propagated by layering. In spring, the side shoots are cut and pinned to the ground, sprinkled with soil. Take care of the season. After 1.5–2 months, cuttings take root, new shoots go up from them. In the autumn they dig out and cut off from the donor.
By dividing the bush, old instances in need of updating are propagated. In September, the hazel is dug up, the aerial part is shortened, the roots are washed and cut into several parts with healthy growth points. Delenki immediately planted in the ground.
Harvesting
The age of fruiting hazel depends on the variety. Cultural varieties bring crops from 5-6 years of age, wild-growing from 7-8 years. One adult tree gives 2 to 9 kg of nuts per season. Collect them from the end of September, tearing from branches or raising already fallen. Before use, ripe nuts need to be dried in the air. Their fruit shell oxidizes, becomes fragile, the core loses a certain amount of moisture and acquires a more saturated taste. Store the fruits in a dark, dry room by placing them in paper bags or linen bags. Airtight packaging is undesirable as it leads to mold.
Diseases and Pests
To protect shrubs and trees from diplodiosis, yellow spotting, powdery mildew and other fungal diseases, it is necessary to regularly cut and destroy drying branches, treating damaged areas with copper sulfate, meat dyes, and garden var. Crowns are recommended to be sprayed with Bordeaux liquid and other fungicides.
The main pests of hazel: weevil, weevil and moth. They gnaw at the fruit shell, feed on kernels, infect plants with a fungus, and can spoil almost the entire crop. The fight against them is complex. Trunk circles regularly dig and carefully loosen, destroy the larvae. The bushes are shaken off, laying down a film to collect insects. Worm nuts are plucked and destroyed. Hazel bark and crowns are sprayed with insecticides three times a season. Sometimes, in the struggle for a nut crop, birds that eat harmful caterpillars and worms are useful.