"For now ... is the mad blood stirring". Female Flower of Corkscrew Hazel, Corylus avellana 'contorta', Venlo, The Netherlands
Spring has now hesitatingly come to Venlo and to the bluff above the River Meuse where in a little garden stands our Contorted or Corkscrew Hazel shrub. Only a week or so ago the male flowers came out in full yellow evidence, dangling and swinging in the sporadic sun rays. The very small - the petals are just under 2 mm long - red translucent almost neon female flowers soon followed. Even with sharp eyes you can easily be blind to them. It's dry this afternoon and in the slanting sunrays little motes of pollen are flying. In time there'll be hazel nuts.
Nuts like small helmets - hence the Latin Corylus. The 'avellana' comes from the Italian town of Avella to the east of Naples in the foothills. A harsh place, not much good for anything but scraggly farming but once apparently abounding in hazelnut shrubs. 'Hazel' stands for the dark, reddish-brown color of those sweet nuts. Shakespeare joins nuts and color together at the beginning of 'Romeo and Juliet' where Mercutio and Benvolio have an altercation over the wisdom of fighting the Capulets. Mercutio upbraids Benvolio for being 'dagger-happy': "Thou! ... thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. What eye, but such an eye, would spy out such a quarrel?'
No quarrel here today between these catkins - the top of a male flower can be seen just to the left -, but only the pure flowery delight of Spring. Ah! and the mad blood stirring...
"For now ... is the mad blood stirring". Female Flower of Corkscrew Hazel, Corylus avellana 'contorta', Venlo, The Netherlands
Spring has now hesitatingly come to Venlo and to the bluff above the River Meuse where in a little garden stands our Contorted or Corkscrew Hazel shrub. Only a week or so ago the male flowers came out in full yellow evidence, dangling and swinging in the sporadic sun rays. The very small - the petals are just under 2 mm long - red translucent almost neon female flowers soon followed. Even with sharp eyes you can easily be blind to them. It's dry this afternoon and in the slanting sunrays little motes of pollen are flying. In time there'll be hazel nuts.
Nuts like small helmets - hence the Latin Corylus. The 'avellana' comes from the Italian town of Avella to the east of Naples in the foothills. A harsh place, not much good for anything but scraggly farming but once apparently abounding in hazelnut shrubs. 'Hazel' stands for the dark, reddish-brown color of those sweet nuts. Shakespeare joins nuts and color together at the beginning of 'Romeo and Juliet' where Mercutio and Benvolio have an altercation over the wisdom of fighting the Capulets. Mercutio upbraids Benvolio for being 'dagger-happy': "Thou! ... thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. What eye, but such an eye, would spy out such a quarrel?'
No quarrel here today between these catkins - the top of a male flower can be seen just to the left -, but only the pure flowery delight of Spring. Ah! and the mad blood stirring...