Hazel question

[Mat]

Afternoon everyone,

I was studying the Hazel trees in my local wood at the weekend and got myself really confused about the male and female flowers! According to my Collins reference book (and a quick search on Wikipedia ) the catkins are the male flowers and the pink buds are female. However, almost all the trees I looked at had catkins AND pink buds!

So am I right in thinking each Hazel tree has both sexes of the flowers rather than one tree is male and another is female?

Thanks,

Mat

 

[British Red]

Yup, spot on - a single Hazel has both types of flower. This isn't true of all trees with male and female flowers though. Holly for example has distinct male and female trees. Only the female will have berries

Red

 

[Mat]

Thanks Red. I thought I had it figured right, but it's good to have a second opinion!

 

[spamel]

Hermaphrodite trees, gross!