# American Hazelnut (Corylus americana)

> Sweet native filberts in late summer on a dense, easy hedgerow shrub.

Also called American filbert. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-hazelnut/

![American hazelnut (Corylus americana) leaves, doubly toothed and heart-shaped at the base](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/american-hazelnut-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corylus_americana1.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 8 to 12 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 9
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, dry uplands, old fields and edges
- Native range: 35 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north and west to [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND) and south to [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [South Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SD), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC))
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: February to April
- Fruit: Nuts, September to October
- First crop: 2 to 3 years
- Mature spread: 13 ft
- Traits: Edible, Wildlife value, Fall color, Bears young, Winter interest
- Sold as: Saplings, Nuts

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Native Edible Orchard.

## Notes

American hazelnut resists the eastern filbert blight that kills European hazels, and it bears small, sweet nuts within a few years. It suckers into a broad thicket, turns orange-red in fall, and feeds turkeys, grouse and squirrels. Plant two or more for cross-pollination and net the bushes if you want any nuts yourself. Best used as a thick property-line hedge or the shrub row of a windbreak.

## Size, growth and what to expect

A young American hazelnut adds 13 to 24 inches of height a year. That matches the roughly foot and a half a year our growth estimator uses for a medium grower. It makes a rounded, thicket-forming shrub, 8 to 12 feet tall and 8 to 13 feet wide, and it is long-lived.

Nuts usually start on plants 2 to 3 years old, with a good crop every 2 to 3 years. The male catkins, 2 to 4 inches long, open in late winter or early spring before the leaves. The half-inch brown nuts ripen from September to October inside a hairy husk with ragged edges. Grouse, quail, wild turkeys, chipmunks, squirrels, foxes, black bears and deer eat them. Hazel is an old English word for filbert.

It grows wild from Maine west to Saskatchewan and south to eastern Oklahoma and Georgia, along streams, in hedgerows, meadows and woodland margins.

## How to grow American Hazelnut

American hazelnut grows in full sun or part shade, on any soil from dry sand to average loam as long as it drains. It suckers into a wide clump, so plant hedgerow bushes 6 to 8 feet apart and keep single plants 10 feet from paths and buildings.

Bare-root saplings go in while dormant, late fall or early spring. Dig a hole twice the width of the roots, keep the root flare at grade, and backfill with plain soil. Mulch two or three inches deep in a ring that stays off the stems. Nuts are sown in fall, two inches deep, and must be covered with hardware cloth, since squirrels and chipmunks dig them up.

Water once a week through the first summer. Rabbits and voles chew young hazel stems, and deer nip the tips, so cage the bush for the first two or three years. No pruning is needed beyond removing dead wood.

Hazelnuts are wind-pollinated and a single bush will not set nuts, so plant two or more seedlings within 50 feet. Squirrels and blue jays take the crop early, so pick when the husks begin to brown.

## Sources

- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Corylus americana](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/corame/all.html)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Corylus americana](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/corylus-americana/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: American hazelnut](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/american-hazelnut/)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: American hazelnut, Corylus americana](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_coam3.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Corylus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Corylus.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Corylus americana](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=COAM3)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: American hazel, Corylus americana](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=208)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Corylus americana](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.135795/Corylus_americana)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Corylus americana](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500448)
- [Go Botany (Native Plant Trust): Corylus americana, American hazelnut](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/corylus/americana/)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Corylus americana](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/corylus/corylus-americana/)
- [University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, Wisconsin Horticulture: Eastern filbert blight](https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/eastern-filbert-blight/)
- [The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition: hazel](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=hazel)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Corylus americana](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/COAM3)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native fruit and nut trees to grow and eat: what each bears, when it starts, and which need a partner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-fruit-and-nut-trees/index.html.md)
- [Native hedges, screens and windbreaks: which trees to use and how far apart to set them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-hedges-screens-and-windbreaks/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other hazelnuts (Corylus) we grow: [Beaked Hazelnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/beaked-hazelnut/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Blackhaw Viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/blackhaw/index.html.md), [Downy Arrowwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/downy-arrowwood/index.html.md), [Gray Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-dogwood/index.html.md) and [Dangleberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dangleberry/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/index.html.md), [Hop Hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hop-hornbeam/index.html.md) and [Black Cherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-cherry/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Beaked Hazelnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/beaked-hazelnut/index.html.md), [Nannyberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/nannyberry/index.html.md), [Running Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/running-serviceberry/index.html.md) and [Mountain Fetterbush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mountain-fetterbush/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on American Hazelnut, add ?species=american-hazelnut with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=american-hazelnut&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for American Hazelnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=american-hazelnut): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for American Hazelnut as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=american-hazelnut (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how American Hazelnut is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=american-hazelnut (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what American Hazelnut needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=american-hazelnut:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant American Hazelnut where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=american-hazelnut&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far American Hazelnut goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=american-hazelnut&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months American Hazelnut flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=american-hazelnut