The first few flowers of spring are blooming and one of the easiest to find are hazel catkins, which I’ve always known as ‘lamb’s tails’. I have never before seen the female flower of the hazel tree so I set out on my walk this morning determined to take a closer look...
My first task was to find a hazel tree; luckily they are distinctive at this time of year with their dangling catkins. Mission accomplished:
You may not think of these as flowers – they lack the colourful petals or delicious scent that many plants employ to lure in their insect pollinators – but each catkin is in fact several hundred individual flowers arranged around a dangly stem.
The catkins comprise of the male flowers and they are perfectly designed to spread pollen using the wind rather than insects. The slightest breeze will shake the ‘tails’ and release a cloud of microscopic pollen grains, dispersing them far and wide. This is a little haphazard but what they lose in accuracy they gain in sheer volume which ensures that some at least will find their intended target – a female hazel flower.
The female flowers will be less familiar to many of us, and a little trickier to find, but will be present on the same tree – each hazel tree produces male catkins and female flowers. Success! Whilst it took me a while to spot one, I soon got me eye in and was able to find several.
The red styles of the bud-like female flowers appear a few days after the pollen has been released by the male catkins which ensures that self-fertilisation does not occur. If a grain of pollen finds a female flower, fertilisation will result in the development of a hazelnut.
Hazelnuts are a very popular food source for many species of wildlife, notably the hazel dormouse, but more commonly enjoyed by bank voles, woodmice, grey squirrels and nuthatches. In autumn, look for the nibbled nuts and you may be able to work out who has eaten them by the tell-tale tooth marks or crunching techniques!
The leaves themselves are the foodplant for several species of moth, including the large emerald – a stunning green species – and the splendidly named nut-tree tussock.
Whilst hazel catkins do provide an early source of pollen for bees, it is not their favourite – the pollen is not sticky so they can only gather it in small batches.
Take a look for a hazel tree, its showy catkins and secretive flowers, when you are next out walking. Other trees have catkins too – how many different types can you find?