Oregon Symbols, Nut: Hazelnut

Adopted in 1987.

The Oregon hazelnut, unlike wild varieties, grows on single-trunked trees up to 30 or 40 feet tall. Adding a unique texture and flavor to recipes and products, they are preferred by chefs, bakers, confectioners, food manufacturers and homemakers worldwide.

The Oregon State Legislature designated the "Oregon Hazelnut" (Corylus avellana) as the Official State Nut.

The State of Oregon produces about ninety-nine percent of the entire U.S. commercial hazelnut crop.

The "Oregon Hazelnut", unlike the wild varieties of this nut, grow on single-trunk trees which reach about 30 to 40 feet in height.

This nut adds a unique texture, and flavor to all kinds of recipes. Hazelnuts are preferred by chefs, bakers, confectioners, food manufacturers, and homemakers worldwide. Not far from where I live is a Hazelnut Candy Factory.

The University of Portland says that a potent anti-cancer agent has been found in Hazelnuts. The article I read states that this could be an alternative soure of Taxol#174, more commonly known as paclitaxel. This is the first report of this chemical being found in any tree other than a yew tree. They also say that this could possibly decrease the price for this drug. The study began as a search for a compund that made certain hazelnut trees resistant to a plant disease. The chemical was found not only in the nuts, but in the branches, and shells as well.

Based on chemical analysis, their is not enough paclitaxel in a handful of raw hazelnuts to make a difference medically, so don't run out and stockpile hazelnuts. They have not researched roasted hazelnuts, and are skeptical of any significant amounts of the chemical being found in hazelnut-flavored products like coffee, tea and candy.

Genus name:  Latin name for hazel

Origin: Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere.

Common name:  Hazelnut, Filbert, Cobnut, European Filbert
 

Plant:

Large shrubs (10-15 ft) in Europe, but trained to a single trunk in the Pacific Northwest to facilitate mechanical harvest. Trees begin bearing when 3-4 years old, and can bear for up to 40-50 yr. Trees commonly produce 20-25 lbs of dried nuts each. Leaves are 2-3" long, broadly ovate, acuminate, slightly lobed with doubly serrate margins.

Flowering, pollination

Monoecious, dichogamous habit, female flowers are borne in head-like inflorescences terminally on short shoots developing from lateral buds on 1-yr wood (borne on current season's growth, although it appears to be 1-year-old wood as extension growth at flowering is severely limited). Male catkins are borne from unmixed lateral buds on 1-yr wood. Most filberts are self-unfruitful.

Flowering habit is unusual. Both and flowers are initiated the summer prior to harvest. Female flowers lack perianth and ovaries at the time of pollination in mid-January to mid-February; the pollen tube grows to the base of the style and becomes quiescent until 5-6 months later (June), when the ovary and ovule develop. Fertilization then takes place in July, and the nut rapidly develops, maturing by late August.

Fruit

A nut in clusters of 1-12; shape varies from round to oval, to oblong, and resembles the appearance of an oak acorn. The pericarp is hard, loosely covering the smooth to shriveled kernel. Nuts are surrounded by a green, leafy husk (involucre), and abscise from the base of the husk in late august. However, the husk does not release the nut until 6 weeks later when it dries and opens.