Photo: Dinesh Valke from Thane, India — CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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.
Grows as a single straight-trunked tree to about 25 m with pale, corky, deeply fissured bark — unlike the multi-stemmed, suckering habit of most hazels — and its thick-shelled nuts, smaller than the common hazelnut, are traditionally gathered wild in the Himalaya and sold in local markets.
- Hardiness
- Zone 6–8
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Nut
- Ripens
- September
- Mature size
- Tree 10–20 m
- Light
- Partial to full sun
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.5 (lime-tolerant)
- Environment
- Montane
- Native range
- The northwest Himalaya — northern Afghanistan and Pakistan east through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to western Nepal, in upper montane oak forest. The arborescent hazel of the eastern Himalaya is a different species, C. ferox.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 3–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- Moderate
- Spacing
- 600 cm (236 in) apart — about 36 m² (388 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Obovate, 6–15 cm, deeply heart-shaped base, abruptly pointed tip, sharply double-toothed and lobed margin, hairless above and hairy beneath along the veins.
- Root system
- Non-suckering — doesn't spread by root suckers, consistent with its clean single-trunk tree habit rather than the thicket-forming root systems typical of shrubby hazels.
- Fruit description
- Nuts 12–16 mm wide with a thick shell, somewhat smaller than common hazelnut kernels; the finely hairy husk has spreading, jagged-lobed margins to 40 mm wide.
- Propagation
- Seed sown fresh in autumn in a cold frame, potted on and overwintered under cover before planting out. Autumn layering roots in about six months. Unlike most hazels, this species does not produce root suckers, so division of suckers isn't a viable method.
- Pollination
- Self-fertile (monoecious, wind-pollinated, flowering April–May), though cross-pollination is still recommended for more reliable nut set.
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. Succeeds in sandy, loamy and clay soils across mildly acid to strongly alkaline pH; performs best on moderate-fertility, loamy soils.
How it spreads. Grows as a single straight-trunked tree to about 25 m and doesn't produce root suckers — a non-spreading, non-thicketing habit distinct from most other Corylus.
Growing tips. Notable among hazels for its clean, single-trunk tree form with pale grey bark that breaks into small corky plates and then deep vertical fissures with age — closer in habit to Turkish tree hazel than to shrubby hazels. Hardy in cool climates. Nuts are traditionally gathered from wild forest trees in the Himalaya and sold in local markets.
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