Corylus cornuta subsp. californica

California hazel, California Hazel

Family: Betulaceae · Type: shrub · Native

California hazel is a native shrub found in northwestern California, the California Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, central coastal California, and San Francisco Bay Area in many habitats, especially moist, shady places at elevations below 2,100 meters. Flowering from January to March, this shrub produces small pale yellow to cream-colored flowers in delicate, dangling clusters. Growing with multiple trunks up to 4 meters tall, it develops a spreading, multi-stemmed structure with flexible branches. Its leaves are soft and velvety-hairy, with heart-shaped bases and pointed tips, measuring approximately 5 to 10 centimeters long. The fruit is an edible nut enclosed in a distinctive vase-shaped involucre 2 to 3 centimeters long.

Habitat: Common. Many habitats, especially moist, shady places

Bloom period: Jan-Mar

Elevation: < 2100 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, CCo, SnFrB

California counties: Humboldt, Santa Cruz, Tulare, Amador, Calaveras, Lake, Monterey, Plumas, Sierra, Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Shasta, Sonoma, Siskiyou, Trinity, Tuolumne, Tehama, Madera, Butte, Placer

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.