The catkins, which emerge in late winter, are also somewhat red in color. The foliage emerges in spring a dark burgundy to maroon color, and maintains this deeply saturated tone through summer. 'Red Dragon' is a moderately vigorous, purple-leaved selection of European hazelnut that will reach around 6' tall with an equal spread in 10 years. The filbert nuts produced in commerce primarily come from hybrid plants ( C. Hazelnut is more often used in reference to wild specimens and filbert is more likely to be used in reference to cultivated plants. Common names of filbert and hazelnut are likely interchangeable. Specific epithet comes from Avella Veccia (southern Italy) or of Avellino (city east of Naples where this plant was much cultivated and called nux Avellana by the Romans). Genus name comes from the Greek word korylos, or from korys meaning a helmet, in regard to the husk on the nut. The nuts from species plants may be roasted and eaten, but are less tasty than those found on developed cultivars and are usually left for the squirrels. In the U.S., Oregon is the center for nut production. In Europe, cultivars of this shrub are commercially grown for nut production. The husk (involucral tube) surrounding the nut extends beyond the nut by at least one inch to form a beak. Nuts appear in terminal clusters of 1-4 and are half covered in ragged husks. Fruit is a hard edible brown nut (to 3/4вЂќ long) enclosed in a leafy, hairy, light green husk. Leaves turn variable but often unexceptional shades of yellow in fall. Double serrate, elliptic to ovate to orbicular, medium green leaves (to 4вЂќ long) are rounded to cordate at the base and generally hairy. Inconspicuous female flowers with red stigmas bloom just above the male catkins. Somewhat showy, pale yellow-gray male flowers appear in sessile drooping catkins (each to 2-3вЂќ long). Monoecious flowers (separate male and female flowers on the same plant) bloom on bare branches in late winter to early spring (March-April) before the leaves emerge. It is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it is typically found growing in rich thickets, woodland borders, wooded slopes, hedgerows, clearings and along streams. Corylus avellana, commonly called European filbert, European hazelnut or cobnut, is a deciduous, thicket-forming, multi-trunked, suckering shrub that typically grows to 12-20вЂ™ tall.

Red dragon landscape