While volunteers are removing invasive weeds and shrubs in the grant area, they are ALWAYS careful to leave untouched our great native shrub - hazelnut.
Hazelnut was common before our area was settled by Europeans. This shrub grows up to 10 feet in height and can create wonderful thickets or copses. In reports from the Government Land Office surveys (1830s and 1840s), the surveyors sometimes referred to them as “hazel ruffs”.
Hazelnut loves sunshine but does well in partial shade. It cheerfully grows in fence lines and along roads. Hazelnut was an integral part of prairie groves – those marvelous open oak savannas ringed with hazelnut, viburnum, and filled with savanna flowers. Of course, those groves are a thing of the past, and so are most fence lines. So, hazelnut is uncommon in this day and age.
Before grant work began, volunteer stewards flagged hazelnut (and other good shrubs to be untouched) with pink ribbon. But we always seem to find more after we have begun work and that’s a great thing!
Yes, you may recognize hazelnut by the name “filbert”. It’s that delicious little round nut found in cans of mixed nuts at the grocery store. You like them? Wildlife likes them too! Chipmunks, turkeys, squirrels, deer, groundhogs, red-bellied woodpeckers and blue jays - just about any and all rodents, birds and mammals enjoy the protein-packed treat. And the male flowers and buds of hazelnut are an important winter food source for turkeys. Plus hazelnut is a host plant for the beautiful Luna moth!
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