New year, new hope

01 Friday Jan 2021

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British trees, Hazel, Hazel female flowers, Hazel flowers, Hazel tree

A new day, a new year, new life, new hope! One of the first things I noticed during today’s long New Year’s Day walk was these Hazel flowers, the tiny pink female flower and, nearby, the long droopy male catkin. And it made me feel hopeful. Though we humans enter 2021 beset by the devastation and grief of a global pandemic, the looming disasters of climate change and environmental destruction, and, in the UK, the self-inflicted damage of Brexit, yet Nature continues its cycles of life, shining a little glimmer of light in the darkness and gloom. Let’s cling to that light and let it inspire us to make 2021 a greener, more environmentally friendly year, for the future of our planet and ourselves.

210101 hazel flowers (1)

69/365 The sex life of Hazels

10 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, nature, trees

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

British trees, catkins, Corylus avellana, Hazel, Hazel catkins, Hazel female flowers, Hazel male flowers

The catkins of the Hazel tree (Corylus avellana) have almost finished now, which is shame as they are such lovely things, such a pretty symbol of springtime. The catkins, often known as ‘lambs’ tails’, are the male flowers, shedding their pollen as a fine yellow dust as they blow in the wind. The female flowers are less conspicuous, tiny compared to the catkins but also very pretty, a bright lipstick pink. Although the Hazel is monoecious, which means both male and female flowers can be found on the same tree, the female flowers must be pollinated by pollen from a different tree if they are to go on and produce Hazel nuts.