dcr
Deceased Member
Registered: February 2004
Posts: 1,317
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Among the very first native flowers of the new year are those of trees and shrubs. These staminate and pistillate flowers were seen recently on a twig of the beaked hazelnut, a fairly common shrub of the New Hampshire woodlands. The long slender yellow stamens are the male part of the flower, producing the pollen for fertilization. The tiny red-petaled flowers are pistils, the female part of the flower, which will receive the pollen via the wind and will eventually produce a fruit called a hazlenut. Hazelnuts are very nutritious and are valued by many species of wildlife. The American Indian also used them, for food and medicine, and man uses them today, ground up and added to breads, cookies and candies, for added texture and flavor. They are closely related to the commercially used filbert, often found in boxes and tins of mixed nuts sold in our stores. The photo shows the flowers at just about life-size.
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