What is so witching about hazel?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

March 11, 2004

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The witch hazels refer to the five or six species in the genus, Hamamelis Linnaeus. These large shrub/small trees are native to temperate eastern North America and eastern Asia. The 'witch' probably derived from the English, wych, meaning bend, a reference to the flexible branches. It also differentiated the trees from the hazels or filberts in the genus, Corylus. The 'witch' stuck to the name as the branches were used as divining or 'water-witching' wands.

Witch hazels are understory woodland trees. They appear to be out of kilter with the rest of the woods, blooming in late autumn, winter, or very early spring. The flowers have four long narrow petals, four stamens, and four staminodes which bear nectar. The flowers are borne in clusters along bare branches.

Close view of witch hazel blossoms
Darlyne A. Murawski/National Geographic
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According to Susan Post with the Center for Economic Entomology, the petals of Hamamelis virginiana curl when temperatures drop to protect the nectar and pollen and unfurl when temperatures warm on sunny winter days. The flowers offer food to any insects that venture forth when the rest of the woods lie dormant. ("Species Spotlight: Witch Hazel" S. Post, INHS, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1996)

There is a delay between pollination (pollen placed on the stigma) and fertilization (when the pollen tube and sperm cells reach the ovules). In early spring, a two-chambered capsule forms, each chamber with a single seed. The capsule takes a year to mature; the seeds are ripe the following year when the witch hazel is once again in bloom. (Guide to Flowering Plant Families, Wendy B. Zomlefer, University of North Carolina Press, 1994)

The dry mature capsule explodes flinging the two seeds up to thirty feet. The sharp sound of snapping seed capsules coming from a tree dressed in spidery yellow flowers certainly unnerved or 'bewitched' anyone walking through the silent woods on a winter's day.

Even the seeds seem bewitched; they bide their time through the seasons. On a spring day, two years from the time they were flung from their parent, tiny witch hazels emerge from the forest floor. (Hortus Third, Staff of Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, 1976)

The Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has posted photographs of witch hazel leaves and flowers. To view the photographs, click on the link:

http://www.gypsymoth.ento.vt.edu/vagm/Treeimages/witchhazel.html

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

The Virginia Native Plant Society has posted a brochure on witch hazel, their "2002 Wildflower of the Year". To learn more about witch hazel, click on the link:

http://www.virginiagreen.org/Info_Files/WitchHazelwoy02pdf.pdf

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