Comfortable and Desirable Life. American Hazelnut or Filbert, Corylus americana, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'When we take a survey of Mankind in general, and of the several requisites by which life is rendered comfortable and desirable the productions of the Vegetable Kingdom are amongst the foremost; as affording the principal necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries of life.' So writes the 'Father of American Dendrology', Humphrey Marshall (1722-1801), at the beginning of the introduction to his Arbustrum Americanum, The American Grove (1785). In that book he gives the first scientific description of this American Hazelnut, which by then had already been commercially exploited some fifty years. Apparently those hazelnut orchards were of economic importance for at Flushing, NY, they were especially protected by Washington's troops during the Revolutionary War. Today in Amsterdam there's an enormous proliferation of tourist shops selling hazelnut nutellas, which increasingly have nudged out more traditional merchants.
Hazelnuts are also called Filberts for St Philibert of Jumièges, who lived in France in the seventh century. His feastday is celebrated in the second half of August and that's when Hazelnuts in Europe have ripened.
This photo is of a female flower.
Comfortable and Desirable Life. American Hazelnut or Filbert, Corylus americana, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'When we take a survey of Mankind in general, and of the several requisites by which life is rendered comfortable and desirable the productions of the Vegetable Kingdom are amongst the foremost; as affording the principal necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries of life.' So writes the 'Father of American Dendrology', Humphrey Marshall (1722-1801), at the beginning of the introduction to his Arbustrum Americanum, The American Grove (1785). In that book he gives the first scientific description of this American Hazelnut, which by then had already been commercially exploited some fifty years. Apparently those hazelnut orchards were of economic importance for at Flushing, NY, they were especially protected by Washington's troops during the Revolutionary War. Today in Amsterdam there's an enormous proliferation of tourist shops selling hazelnut nutellas, which increasingly have nudged out more traditional merchants.
Hazelnuts are also called Filberts for St Philibert of Jumièges, who lived in France in the seventh century. His feastday is celebrated in the second half of August and that's when Hazelnuts in Europe have ripened.
This photo is of a female flower.