February 04, 2007: Story of A Hazel

Hi everyone,

I always love Hazel nuts, especially Hazel nut chocolate. I never knew that 'a Hazel' will become significant in my life until last December. So, I am now sharing with you story of a hazel that I discovered on the net. Please feel free, to share with me any information on hazel - the tree, the flowers or the nuts.

Love - Larra

The Hazel tree (Corylus avellana) is member of the birch family (Betulaceae), and is one of the sacred trees of Wicca/Witchcraft revered by the ancients and contemporaries alike. In Celtic lore the Hazel was considered a tree of knowledge, particularly in Ireland were its nuts became a symbol of great mystical wisdom. The Celts associated the Hazel Tree with wisdom and inspiration and it was thought that new skills and knowledge could be gained by eating Hazelnuts.

Among the chiefs and rulers of ancient times, a Hazel wand was considered a symbol of authority and wisdom.

Unripe male hazel flowers

The male flowers are long yellow catkins, known as 'lamb's tails'.

The fruit of the Hazel tree has a peculiarity in its growth that is worthy of note. The male flowers or catkins are mostly produced on the ends of the year's shoots, while the female flowers are produced close to the branch where they are completely sessile or un-stalked.

By January female Hazel flowers have already flowered and are now past their best with the male catkins blossoming now.

The female flowers, which grow on the same tree, are small, red and bud-like in appearance.

Male and female Hazel flowers

In most fruit trees when a flower is fertilized the fruit is produced in exactly the same place, but with the hazelnut a different arrangement takes place. As soon as the flower is fertilized it starts away from the parent branch and a fresh branch is grown bearing the new leaves and nuts at its end, thus the new nut is produced several inches away from the spot on which its parent flower originally grew.

Hazelnuts generally ripen by September and can be eaten directly off the tree. They also provide a rich source of food for many of the smaller animals, such like squirrels and dormice.

Ripe Hazel nuts

Nuts from the Hazel Tree

When I was young I used to look for hazels after church
Long in seeking, hard to gain but better for the search
Crack the shell to find the meat, rich and pale and wild and sweet
Poet, mage and madman eat -- nuts from the hazel tree.

Wisdom's pride hazels hide;
Hazel graces sacred places,
Wind and tide, scatter them wide;
Nuts from the hazel tree.

Seedlings stretch to see the sun from secret roots below
From a single nut a spreading hazel grove may grow
For story is by story fanned; poets, singers, authors stand
Scattering from either hand, nuts from the hazel tree.

I come to hear you sing for me the restful hazel shade
The rising dust of time and sorrow in my soul has laid
A thirst that only magic slakes, answered when the zephyr wakes
Where its careless footstep shakes -- nuts from the hazel tree.

Journeying consider well how life and story link
Anyone may hunger for the poet's meat and drink
Always take a satchel strong, stuffed with story and with song
When you journey take along -- nuts from the hazel tree.

~ Lyrics and melody © 2000 by Catherine Faber (revised 2003)