The Dawes Arboretum

Common name: Chinese hazel, Chinese filbert

Family: Betulaceae (birch family)

Synonym: Corylus colurna var. chinensis

Distribution: China

IUCN Red list: Least concern

Hardiness: USDA Zone 5

Life form: Deciduous shrub/Subshrub

Comments: This species in its native habitat is a large deciduous tree to 120' with deeply furrowed, gray to dark brown bark. In cultivation, it will likely reach only 40' tall with an upright, later rounded, outline. Its leaves are among the largest of the genus, 6-7" long, coarsely tooted and shallowly lobed, medium green in summer, yellow in autumn. Fruit is a nut, ¾" wide, clustered 4-6, in leaf bracts or husks (involucres). Subject to Japanese beetle feeding after July but somewhat less troubled than the European species.