In late July, you may find nuts wrapped in papery green husks.
They’re American hazelnuts, Corylus americana, so closely related to the beaked hazel-nut Corylus cornuta that the two species can hybridize. The nut wrappers tell them apart.
The husks on C. americana’s nuts are two leaf-like bracts with ragged tips. This photo by Paul Wray at forestryimages.org shows hairy leaf bracts and an unwrapped nut.
Beaked hazel-nut (C. cornuta) husks are so long and thin that they look like beaks, as seen in this photo from forestryimages.org.
The nuts I found in Schenley Park don’t have long beaks but they aren’t quite the same as the C. americana photo above.
I wonder if they’re hybrids.
(two photos by Kate St. John. photo number 5556599 by Caleb Slemmons, National Ecological Observatory Network, at Bugwood.org)
We saw the Beaked hazelnut on the Butler Freeport trail years ago. Haven’t seen it since.
Are these American hazelnuts edible for humans?
Helen, yes American hazelnuts are also called filberts. They are edible (see this website http://www.carolinanature.com/trees/coam3.html)