American Hazelnut

Corylus americana - American Hazelnut

Imported from the Alleghany Mountains and cultivated in the royal nurseries of Versailles at the beginning of the 19th century, the American Hazelnut fascinates with its uniqueness: its small, triangular fruit has a fine and delicate taste that Poiteau himself appreciated, although this hazelnut remains little known in France.

Sold in all markets in the United States, it remains a rarity in Europe, a precious botanical testament to a species threatened with extinction on French soil.

This bushy shrub, barely exceeding 1.50 to 2 meters in height, is distinguished by its bushy and rounded habit.

Its heart-shaped leaves, yellowish-green, deeply veined and reddish on the underside, fall early, a month before those of European hazelnuts.

Its slender, yellowish or purple male catkins bear remarkably pointed scales sheltering eight delicate anthers.

The fruit, oval and compressed, devoid of the velvety texture of European hazelnuts, is distinguished by its very hard shell and its dry kernel with a subtle taste.

Its involucre, equipped with glandular hairs, tightens above the fruit into a pleated and cut limb. This species, native to the New York and Philadelphia region, remains a rare testament to the diversity of American Corylaceae.

This plate is taken from the Traité des Arbres Fruitiers by Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin, a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalist illustration.

It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensibility, characteristic of the great plates from the golden age of illustrated botany.