• Home
  • Blog Posts
  • About Me

American Hazelnut is a great native shrub for wildlife

July 17, 2016 By Jim 22 Comments

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubscribe

Today, lets talk about a shrub I doubt you have found in the garden center, nurseries or other stores you usually buy your plants in, the American Hazelnut.

That does not mean you shouldn’t be adding it to your landscape. Especially if you are trying to create a garden sanctuary not only for you, but also for the wildlife we share our land with. Here are some of the reasons you should consider our obscure shrub:

  • It provides a variety of wildlife food and shelter.
  • It is a native to much of the US.
  • It’s Fall color is an attractive yellow to orange to copper color.
  • It has no serious disease or pests.

One more thing, it is a long-lived and productive edible nut bearing shrub!

American Hazelnut

Corylus Americana

Pronounced: KOR-rill-us uh-mair-rick-KAY-nuh

The American Hazelnut is a relative rarity in garden and landscape settings.  This shrub should be a staple wildlife garden plant in natural style gardens due to its excellent wildlife value, reliability and attractiveness.

It is also one of the few nut bearing native shrubs and is an excellent addition to your diet!

American Hazelnut
This Chicago Botanic Garden Plant Science Center Rain Garden features two American Filbert as well as Butterfly Weed, (Asclepias tuberosa), False Indigo (Baptisia australis), and a Whitebarked birch (Betula ‘Whitespire’). Photo by cultivar413

The American Hazelnut has been found in all counties of my state and probably a few of yours.

American Filbert native range
American Hazelnut native range in light green.

Habitats that the American Hazelnut grow in include upland forests, moist to dry-mesic woodlands, savannas and sandy savannas, moist to dry-mesic prairies and sand prairies, as well as fence rows.

Cultivation

Hardiness Zone: 3 to 8
Size: They reach a height 6 to 12 feet, with a spread of 6 to 12 feet if not pruned. Occasionally to 15 feet tall.
Flowers: In March to April interesting hanging yellow-brown catkins (male flowers) appear. Sure they are not Bluebells, but they do add interest to the plant especially if sited with the blue sky behind them.
Corylus Americana photo
Photo by Kristine Paulus licensed under Attribution License
Sun: Full Sun to medium shade.
Soil & Water: They prefer a moist, well drained soil, but they tolerate clay soil well too. They also handle alkaline soils and drought just fine. If planted near in wet soil or along a pond, expect it to sucker a lot. In normal to drier soils it will sucker much less.
Leaf: Nice crisp green Spring color. Good mostly Yellow but also Orange to Copper Fall Color.
Fruit: Edible nuts that are easy to harvest and enjoy! They also bear quickly a few years after planting. Plant more than one for larger yields.
American Hazelnuts are great for toasting
Photo by Edsel L

American Hazelnut Wildlife Value:

A lot of different insects feed on the leaves, nuts, and stems of the American Hazelnut. These include leaf beetles, walking sticks, plant bugs, leafhoppers, moth caterpillars (including the Luna Moth (Actias luna).

American Hazelnuts are host plant to Actias luna
Not all moths are grey, brown and boring. The American Hazelnut is a host plant to the caterpillar of the gorgeous Luna Moth (Actias luna) shown here. Photo by woodleywonderworks

The nuts are eaten by a variety of birds including Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Quail, Wild Turkey, Ruffed Grouse, and my favorite bully, the Blue Jay. Even the male flowers and buds of American Hazelnut are an important source of winter food during for the Ruffed Grouse and Wild Turkey.

red bellied woodpecker photo
Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar licensed under Attribution-NoDerivs License

The list of mammals that eat the nuts include the Grey, Red and Fox Squirrel, Eastern Chipmunk, and White-Footed Mouse. Deer and rabbits will chew on the browse on the twigs and leaves also, but usually don’t due ornamental damage to the plant due to its thick shrubby habit. Beavers will use it if it is grown near water.

Due to the American Hazelnut’s dense branching structure and large leaves, it provides excellent cover and ideal nesting habitat for many birds.

The American hazelnut's dense foliage makes good hedge.
Especially in sunnier spots, the dense foliage of the American Filbert makes an excellent screen. Photo by Cranbrook Institute of Science

American Hazelnut Landscape value

American Hazelnuts are great plants for natural hedgerows as well as spacing throughout the nature inspired garden. They provide a medium leaf texture with a crisp green color that changes to an attractive yellow to orange in Autumn.

While they are not specimen shrubs, they are great filler plants that add that all important green color to the landscape. They are long-lived plants that have been known to live well over forty years. You will not want to site them in wet soil unless you want them to sucker a lot and spread.

Soil and Water Conservation district sales in early Spring are a great way to find cheap although usually very small plants.

Even plants started from seed can often bear nuts very early, three to four years is not unusual compared to the often decades of nut bearing trees. Like most plants they won’t bear a heavy crop every year, but instead every 2 or 3 years with smaller yields on years between.

Of course there are some selections by the Nursery industry, including the Purple Leaf Bailey Select (Corylus americana ‘Purpleleaf Bailey Select’) if you just HAVE to have one that is a bit more ornamental. Although note research has begun to find that purple foliage plants may not feed our native insects as well as green leaf plants and if you are planting this plant for its high ecological value you may want to reconsider.

Purple Leaf American Hazelnut
Yeah they make purple ones too! Although, I completely prefer the crisp green foliage on the straight species!

American hazelnuts are easy to propagate, maintain, and harvest. The hardest part about adding them to your landscape may be finding a nursery that sells them!

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubscribe

Filed Under: Plant recommendations Tagged With: Bush, Edible, native, shrub

Comments

  1. James Heberling says

    September 29, 2021 at 7:56 am

    We live on the Pine River in Waushara County, Wisconsin. We have a bridge that goes across the River to a point and it does flood once in a while, mostly in the spring. The soils is sandy.
    Will hazelnut shrubs grow there?

    Reply
  2. Heidi Stevens says

    May 8, 2021 at 6:41 am

    We planted one last year, and it is now about 3′ tall and 2′ wide. I had a rabbit eating the leaves this morning. How long do these shrubs need to grow, and how big do they need to get, so that rabbits eating the leaves will not harm the shrub? We did plant it, because we are trying to turn our yard into a sanctuary for wildlife.

    In SE Wisconsin, we got ours through Johnson’s Nursery.

    Reply
    • Jim says

      May 8, 2021 at 7:03 am

      I don’t know but it sounds like it is well on its way to being large enough that rabbits won’t be a big issue. I would use some repellent this Spring though.

      Reply
    • Shawn says

      June 29, 2022 at 5:50 pm

      We recently propagated 10 from seed and they are about 10″ tall as I write this. I have them in 12″ deepots and will most likely plant them this fall. Any special treatment needed to keep them alive in a pot over the winter? I am in upstate NY. A zone 5.

      Reply
  3. bob says

    August 21, 2020 at 1:33 pm

    you mention that the corylus is easily propagated. I have a few plants that I first planted 30+ years ago. If I want to make starts available to other Kentucky native plant growers, how would I go about that?

    thanks

    Reply
    • Grammy's Grub says

      June 17, 2022 at 9:18 am

      Hi there! I’m in Central Kentucky. Did you have success with propagating?

      Reply
  4. Anne Edwards says

    September 22, 2019 at 1:31 pm

    Hi! We recently built on family land in north east Texas, zone 8….Neil Sperry is our expert for Texas planting and I do not find them in his book…Will hazelnut trees survive Texas heat? Thank you!!! Anne

    Reply
  5. ranger rick says

    March 20, 2019 at 11:10 am

    how tall will they grow ?

    Reply
  6. Placidus says

    December 4, 2018 at 10:41 am

    I’ve been reading around for forever on this, but I haven’t been able to find an adequate answer. In England they are coppiced and the poles are used for fencing, bean poles, etc. Are the American varieties as good for this as the European, or are the poles not tall enough/thick enough ? I’d love to be able to have a reliable source of support poles for the garden.

    Reply
    • bob says

      November 9, 2020 at 10:13 am

      make great poles…if you let them go for a couple of years you can have a straight 8′ x 1/3″ pole.

      Reply
  7. Wayne says

    July 23, 2018 at 6:18 am

    The New Hampshire State Nursery sells these as seedlings. I bought 5 years ago and they are now very productive.

    http://www.nhnursery.com/online-tours/seed-to-seedling.aspx

    Reply
  8. Yanyra says

    May 17, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    Prairie Moon sells them as bare roots.

    https://www.prairiemoon.com/corylus-americana-american-hazelnut-prairie-moon-nursery.html

    Reply
  9. Garden Guy says

    January 11, 2018 at 11:25 am

    The State of Wisconsin is trying to develop Hazelnuts as a crop. I believe there are also few other States doing the same. I will add one of hybrids to my cottage garden. Thanks
    http://www.driftless.wisc.edu/upper-midwest-hazelnut-initiative/

    Reply
    • Jim says

      January 12, 2018 at 5:52 am

      Thanks for the info. I didn’t know about this but am definitely going to be reading up on it.

      Reply
    • Bob says

      November 9, 2020 at 10:16 am

      Oregon produces 95%+ of US filberts (commercialized hazlenuts). Thousands of acres have been added in the Willamette Valley the last couple of years..they are replacing berries and grass seeds as a crop for Oregon farmers. (hemp is starting to take hold as well)

      Reply
  10. Holly says

    September 21, 2017 at 1:54 pm

    Thanks for this info. Just collected some seeds and plan to plant them along the edge of the road. We shall see if I am successful.

    Reply
  11. Lala F. says

    July 25, 2017 at 9:51 am

    I wanted to add the Arbor Day Foundation has little ones for sale on their website. I haven’t found one around me.

    Reply
  12. Dotty Hartline says

    May 8, 2017 at 7:11 am

    Wherected can I buy hazelnut Plants? Can I start plants from seed?

    Reply
    • Jim says

      May 13, 2017 at 9:07 pm

      Retail nuseries sometimes carry these. If you are patient enough you can grow from seed.

      Reply
  13. Jeremiah says

    July 20, 2016 at 7:15 pm

    This was good timing as I’ve been researching native shrubs to form a hedge. I had considered forsythia because of its size, hardiness and ease of propogation but found out they are not a good source of forage for honeybees. We have a corner lot with about 1 acre that is maintained as lawn. We feel pretty exposed so would really like a hedge that offers some privacy most of the year. Does the American hazelnut offer pollen or nectar for honeybees and other pollinators? I’ve really been considering the Redosier dogwood – do you have any thoughts on using them in this way? I really enjoy reading your blog. Blessings, Jeremiah.

    Reply
    • Jim says

      July 20, 2016 at 8:03 pm

      No pollen benefit for wildlife as they are wind pollinated. They can form nice dense twiggy growth that sounds like a terrific choice for your site as a screen. They will be a bit more effective in the winter as a screen then the dogwood.

      You could certainly combine them with other shrubs that offer pollen or you could just underplant them with Virginia bluebells, etc. for pollinators like bumblebees.

      I think they would be a great choice.

      Reply
    • bob says

      August 21, 2020 at 1:30 pm

      also notable that the forsythia is not native. I just dug up my whole hedge.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, for more information on data we may collect about you see our Privacy policy.
I use affiliate links and may earn a commission if you purchase through my links. To learn more, check this out.
© 2018 Jim Anderson