Photo: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT — CC BY 3.0 · source
Survives zone 6 through 8
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
The tallest-growing member of the genus in the wild — reported to reach 40 m in Chinese forests — now rare and vulnerable there, and grown in the West chiefly as an ornamental tree for its striking bark and reddish spring foliage rather than for nut production.
- Hardiness
- Zone 6–8
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Nut
- Ripens
- September
- Mature size
- Forest tree 20–40 m — much the largest hazel, and single-trunked rather than a stool
- Light
- Partial to full sun
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.5 (lime-tolerant)
- Environment
- Montane
- Native range
- South-central China — Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, southwest Sichuan, Xizang and northwest Yunnan — in montane forests on moist slopes at 1,200–3,500 m.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 3–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- Vigorous while young — one UK accession reached 16 m in about 12 years — slowing as it matures into a tall tree.
- Spacing
- 800 cm (315 in) apart — about 64 m² (689 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Ovate to obovate, 8–18 cm, shallowly heart-shaped base, short-pointed tip, irregularly double-toothed margin; young foliage flushes reddish and densely hairy beneath.
- Root system
- A single, non-suckering trunk that develops a good fibrous root system faster from seed than Turkish tree hazel.
- Fruit description
- Nuts in clusters of 2–6, ovoid to globose, 10–15 mm wide; the downy husk forms a smooth but ribbed tubular sheath 2–6 cm long, deeply divided into jagged lobes.
- Propagation
- Grown from seed (sown fresh in autumn, cold-stratified) and increasingly by grafting; develops a good fibrous root system faster from seed than Turkish tree hazel does.
- Pollination
- Monoecious, wind-pollinated and self-fertile; fruiting is unreliable in cool summers, and it crosses with European hazelnut to form the hybrid × vilmorinii.
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Tolerates poor, gravelly soils and dry summers but grows best with ample growing-season rainfall, reflecting its native mountain-forest habitat; prefers soils of moderate fertility, disliking both very rich and very poor ground.
How it spreads. Grows as a single-trunked standard tree and doesn't produce the numerous basal suckers typical of shrubby Corylus species — essentially non-suckering.
Growing tips. Immune to eastern filbert blight and resistant to Japanese beetle damage. Hybridizes readily with European hazelnut to produce the hybrid × vilmorinii, prized for vigor and superior nuts. In cool climates, fruiting is inconsistent, occurring reliably only after favorable summers. Increasingly planted as an ornamental alternative to Turkish tree hazel in larger gardens, valued for spring leaf color and mature bark.
Grow journal
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