The diminutive flowers produced by many tree and shrub species in the spring are often overlooked relative to the showiness of flowering plants like trailing arbutus, purple deadnettle, and pink lady slippers, but the delicate details are worth taking a moment to slow down and notice. The female flowers of beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta), for instance, are little more than a cluster of fine red “hairs”, which are actually the flower’s pistils. 

Beaked hazelnuts are native to most of North America and are a common understory shrub on Cape Cod. While the male pollen-producing catkins have been visible on the branches all winter, the red female pistillate flowers are just starting to open now. It is these female flowers that will develop into the fruit/nut in the fall. 

The species name “cornuta” is derived from the Latin word for horn, referring to the curved horn-like extension on the beaked fruit. The nuts of beaked hazelnut, which are produced in the fall, are edible, and also provide an important food source for rabbits, squirrels, and grouse.