Hazel or Filbert easy way to id without the nut?

[awarner]

Hazel or Filbert is the question apart from the nut I'm trying to decide this time of year which is which?
As both are fairly similar in bark and leaf (filbert seems to have a slightly more ragged look) I have noticed that some publications show a spindle leaf with a dark patch in the centre of the leaf.
I noticed this patch a couple of months back when the leaves were just coming out, now the question this raises is this unique to the filbert or does hazel have this as well?

Normally the wildlife gets all the nuts before they mature so I was not fortunate enough to get this id last year.

Anything else that can help with id?

 

[Robson Valley]

From Farrar's text: Trees In Canada.

The native Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta) has a long, tubular involucre which more than covers the developing nut.
The European Filbert (Corylus avallana) has a short involucre, about the same length as the nut.

Perhaps more useful, look at the lateral buds. Each is found on a twig, just above each scar left from last year's leaf.
Each bud is covered in protective bud scales. The Filbert is the only one where the bud scales and the leaf scar are all approximately the same size.
In the other species, the bud scales are commonly 2X the size of the leaf scar, making the buds elongate rather than roundish.

 

[awarner]

Nice, thanks for the info hopefully I can now confirm what I am looking at.

 

[Blundstoned Love]

Corylus avellana is our native hazelnut.

Corylus maxima is the filbert.

I've never tried to identify them from the leaves etc, just the from nuts (hazels have mostly bare nuts, filberts are mostly covered). It's probably not that simple as they are so similar and the two probably hybridise making it even more difficult.

 

[Robson Valley]

Interesting that the common names don't or can't match the Latin names.
At least the textbooks ought to be consistent.
Which one are you using, BL?

 

[Blundstoned Love]

No books - at least not directly - it's in my head. I have some horticultural qualifications.

I do have a ridiculous amount of plant books too.

 

[Robson Valley]

I keep adding notes to the few dendrology reference books that I kept when
I retired from the botany/dendrology professor's rat race.
Farrar is quite good, commonly noting european species which inevitably get introduced
here as landscaping ornamentals.

I have no reference to C. maxima.
C. cornuta = Beaked Hazel (syn C. rostrata)
C. americana = Americal Hazel
C. colurna = Turkish Hazel
C. avellana = European Filbert

In passing, you might be interested to note that there's fungal blight running rampage over here in the filbert/hazelnut industry.
Recently, one grower has uprooted 8,000 trees as a result. I don't know how far north it has set in.
There's a small industry in spots of the Okanagan Valley in southern British Columbia.
For possibly a century there, the Gelatly family dida lot of breeding and provenance studies with
walnuts (Juglans regia) but which filbert, I can't remember.

 

[awarner]

Wiki for hazel names includes Corylus maxima for the Filbert and Corylus avellana for the Common hazel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel.

I've not even started trying to get to grips with the Latin on any plant, common names for me.

on a side note chatting to a nearby nature reserve they think that when the old claypit was turned into a reserve they were not as careful 20yrs ago with planting native species and some Turkish hazel was planted by mistake.

 

[Blundstoned Love]

For trees I use these books in this order, each getting more serious.

The Gardener's Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Trees and Shrubs - Brian Davis. I've been taught by Brian and he's forgotten more on trees than I'll ever know

Hilliers Manual of Trees and Shrubs

Mabberley's Plant Book - D J Mabberley.

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks, BL. If those are available here, I'll take a look and perhaps buy something.
Which would you recommend as a course textbook?