looduskalender.ee

 

No, the nut crop isn't anything to boast of, in places the hazels are quite empty ... Good nut years come at intervals of three-four years.

 

The hazel has a bundle of trunks that grow up to six metres high here, consisting of shoots of various ages and thicknesses. The older and thicker trunks grow in the centre of the tree or shrub – as they age they slope outwards with time, eventually  dry out and "die“. Fruiting begins at five-six years for a young hazel, but a decent nut harvest comes from trees more than ten years old.

 

The nuts are mostly  two to five together, enclosed in a husk (involucre) that is partly soft-shelled, velvety and with a fringed edge. Wild boars go searching for  hazelnuts under the trees, for winter stores both squirrels and yellow-necked mice hide them. Among birds woodpeckers, jays, nutcrackers, nuthatches help to spread the hazel ...

 

Nutcracker