What is "corylus avellana"

filbert \fil"bert\, n. [Perh. fr. fill + bread, as filling the bread or husk; cf. G. bartnuss (lit., bread nut) filbert; or perh. named from a St.Philibert, whose day, Aug. 22, fell in the nutting season.]

1. (Bot.) The fruit of the Corylus Avellana or Corylus maxima, also called the hazel; the hazelnut. It is an oval nut, containing a kernel that has a mild, farinaceous, oily taste, agreeable to the palate.

   Note: In England filberts are usually large hazelnuts, especially the nuts from selected and cultivated trees. The American hazelnuts are of two other species, Corylus Americana and Corylus cornuta, and are also sometimes called filberts.

2. (Bot.) The tree bearing the filbert; the hazelnut tree.

   Filbert gall (Zo["o]l.), a gall resembling a filbert in form, growing in clusters on grapevines. It is produced by the larva of a gallfly ( Cecidomyia).

Hazel \Ha"zel\ (h[=a]"z'l), n. [OE. hasel, AS. h[ae]sel; akin to D. hazelaar, G. hazel, OHG. hasal, hasala, Icel. hasl, Dan & Sw. hassel, L. corylus, for cosylus.]

1. (Bot.) A shrub or small tree of the genus Corylus, as the Corylus avellana, bearing a nut containing a kernel of a mild, farinaceous taste; the filbert. The American species are Corylus Americana, which produces the common hazelnut, and Corylus rostrata. See Filbert.
   --Gray.

2. A miner's name for freestone.
   --Raymond.

   Hazel earth, soil suitable for the hazel; a fertile loam.

   Hazel grouse (Zo["o]l.), a European grouse ( Bonasa betulina), allied to the American ruffed grouse.

   Hazel hoe, a kind of grub hoe.

   Witch hazel. See Witch-hazel, and Hamamelis.

Corylus avellana, the common hazel, is a species of hazel native to Europe and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Iberia, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, north to central Scandinavia, and east to the central Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and northwestern Iran. It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the traditional field boundaries in lowland England. The wood was traditionally grown as coppice, the poles cut being used for wattle-and-daub building and agricultural fencing.

Common hazel is cultivated for its nuts. The name hazelnut applies to the nuts of any of the species of the genus Corylus. This hazelnut or cob nut, the kernel of the seed, is edible and used raw or roasted, or ground into a paste. The cob is round, compared with the longer filbert nut.