Corylus ferox Wall.

Phylogenetic studies suggest that Corylus ferox occupies a position not far from the ancestral root of the genus (Zhao et al. 2020). A casual observer might sense as much: here is a distinctive tree, but one whose graceful habit and rather slender, long-pointed leaves, flushing a delicate red and margined with fine whisker-tipped teeth, might suggest some general kind of Betulaceae rather than a hazel in particular; the nuts’ spiny husks, unique in Corylus, recall a more distantly related group, the sweet chestnuts (Castanea), except that they are smaller and a shocking crimson, ripening blonde. The male catkins in spring are pinkish, rather than yellow as in most hazels. C. ferox is so distinctive, in fact, that Nathaniel Wallich’s original name from 1830 (‘bristling hazel’) has never been challenged by subsequent botanists; the only modification has been the addition of var. tibetica (Batalin) Franch., a plant differing very subtly in its glabrous buds and shorter-pointed leaves with slightly fewer pairs of veins (8–12 cf. 10–14). The more easterly distribution of var. tibetica makes it a Chinese endemic (Li & Skvortsov 1999).

Var. tibetica reached the west in the last years of the nineteenth century, but var. ferox itself had to wait until the second golden age of plant-hunting in the later decades of the twentieth. Since then there have been a number of introductions to the UK, the first by Len Beer from Nepal (Edwards & Marshall 2019; Clarke 1988). To date, the species remains a bush in cultivation, rather than the 20 m tree described from the wild: the tallest (7 m) grows in woodland shelter at Wakehurst Place and was accessioned in 1978 from Schilling 2338. Other collections include EMAK 733 at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, SICH 962 at Howick Hall, and KR 7651 at Ness Botanic Gardens and the Yorkshire Arboretum (Tree Register 2023). GWJ 9293 is offered by Crûg Farm (Crûg Farm Plants 2023), while Pépinière AOBA in France offers plants from seed collected in Sichuan Province (Pépinière AOBA 2023).

Corylus ferox is hardy enough to survive at the University of Oslo Botanical Garden (University of Oslo Botanical Garden 2023). Given the range of material now growing in Europe, the lack of evidence for the cultivation of such an elegant and fascinating plant anywhere in North America seems strange.