Hazelnut

The plant has a bush or tree shape, if cultivated it is generally 2 to 4 m tall but if left in free form it can also reach a height of 7-8 m. It has simple, heart-shaped leaves with toothed edges. It is a monoecious deciduous species, with rapid growth.

The inflorescences are unisexual. The male ones in pendulous catkins that form in autumn, the female ones resemble a small gem. Each hazelnut cultivar is self-sterile and needs to be pollinated by another cultivar.

The fruit is surrounded by bracts from which it releases when ripe and falls. It ripens from the end of August and the harvest generally takes the whole of September, sometimes even reaching October.

Its origins are very ancient and its diffusion dates back to the end of the last ice age, which occurred around 10,000 years ago. Fossils found in Germany, Sweden and Denmark prove that the fruits of this shrub were part of the diet of primitive man when he did not yet know how to cultivate them and fed on wild berries/fruits including hazelnuts.

Originally from Mesopotamia, it has spread throughout Europe, especially frequent in the Mediterranean and Balkan areas. For its fruits with a high fat content, the hazelnut plant was appreciated by both the Greeks and the Romans. It was widely cultivated in Avella, in Campania; then at the beginning of the 20th century it was introduced in the Alta Langa (Piedmont), to give profitability to marginal lands: in the 60-70s, thanks to the discovery of the excellent qualitative characteristics of the hazelnut by the confectionery industry, the development of cultivation began.