Corylus heterophylla
Habit
The Mongolian Mongolian hazel or hazelnut (Corylus heterophylla ) is a large shrub of the birch family. The distribution area is located in Japan, Korea, China and Siberia.
Description
The Mongolian hazel is an up to 7 meters tall shrub or small tree with gray bark and densely glandular- hairy, covered with Korkporen branches. The leaves have a thin, 1-2 cm, rarely up to 3 inches long, slightly hairy stem. The leaf blade is 4 to 13 inches long and 2.5 to 10 inches wide, obovate to ovate roundish, abruptly short- acuminate with rounded or heart- shaped base and irregularly dentate, more or less lobed margin. There shall be three to seven pairs of nerves. The nerves of the lower leaf surface is hairy, the upper leaf surface is bare. The male catkins are arranged in groups of four to five. They are about 4 inches long, thin and have reddish-brown, obovate and hairy bracts. The female flowers are in groups of two to six and have 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide, bell-shaped, hairy bracts. The nuts are ovate - globose. They have diameters of 0.7 to 1.5 inches and are striped by a slightly longer, velvety hairy case covers, which is deeply divided in six to nine triangular lobes with smooth edges. The species flowers from May to June and the nuts ripen from July to August. The chromosome number is.
Distribution and location
The distribution area is located in the temperate zone of Asia, southern Siberia and the Amur region in Russia, Mongolia, in many provinces of China, the Korean peninsula and the Japanese islands Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu. Where it grows in species-poor forests at altitudes from 400 to 2500 meters on moderately dry to moist, mildly acidic to mildly alkaline, gravelly or sandy- loamy soils in sunny locations. The species is thermophilic and usually frost hardy.
System
The Mongolian hazel (Corylus heterophylla ) is a species of the genus hazel (Corylus ) in the birch family ( Betulaceae ). It is the section Corylus associated with the subsection Corylus. It was first described in 1844 by Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer.
There are two varieties:
- Corylus heterophylla var heterophylla with oblong or obovate leaf blades with stachelspitzigem or geschwänztem blade end and hardly toothed bracts. The distribution area is located in China, Japan and Russia at altitudes 400-2400 m.
- Corylus heterophylla var sutchuanensis with elliptic obovate to broadly ovate or rounded leaf blades with rounded or stachelspitzigem blade end and serrated bracts. The distribution area is located in China at altitudes of 500 to 2500 meters.
- The earlier still distinct variety Corylus heterophylla var thunbergii the variety heterophylla is assigned today.
Use
The Mongolian hazel is very rarely used for forestry. It is used because of its fruits as an ornamental plant and also serves as bee pasture.