Frilly fruits on the trees in front of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay
There’s always something I haven’t seen before when I am in Cardiff Bay. This time, on a blustery day, I noticed these unusual, heavy fruits on the trees in front of the Wales Millennium Centre.
The group of trees this week
I have to admit I thought these were some form of birch (Betula) when I saw them with long catkins in spring, but didn’t question it. Clearly I didn’t notice them last autumn, when I suppose I was spending all my time walking around the Wharf and observing its wildlife.
Some of the leaves and bracts are going dry and brown
Now I looked closely I could tell these were not birches – by both the fruits and the leaves.
A leaf – definitely not a birch
So I got to thinking what did the fruits most remind me of. And it was hazel, so I googled hazel species and there it was – it’s Turkish hazel, Corylus colurna. It was a new one to me.
Some more ‘hairy’ fruits
More leaves
You can see the similarity to common hazel (Corylus avellana)…
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For comparison, this is the common hazel, Corylus avellana – Click the image for the source: Isidre Blanc on Wikimedia Commons
A day or two later it was even windier and there were many of the Turkish hazel nuts blown down across the plaza. One of my friends, Tricia, brought them into the office and asked if I knew what they were. Hooray! I did!
If she had asked me last week I would have been clueless. In fairness, she had also seen a similarity to hazelnuts. She was keen to find out if they were edible – apparently they are but as they are small and have thick shells they have no commercial value.
For the record, here are the catkins in Cardiff Bay, from March 2019…
The trees had catkins in spring…
…very long catkins
You learn something new every day!
The Squirrelbasket 
Oh, how interesting! I’ve never heard of Turkish hazel. Those fruits are quite decorative too, aren’t they with their purply brown hairiness. Thanks for showing them to us.
Delighted to share a new discovery.
Best wishes 🙂
How interesting! I would try to find a way into those shells.
I guess they could be roasted when ripe and smashed with a hammer – although I’m not sure how much would be left to eat!
Take care 🙂
I’m wondering if ‘Turkey’ in this context means something other than the country. Near where I used to live there was a Turkey Oak and its buds would have lots of squiggly bits like your nut cases. I found it very hard to photograph and never came up with anything satisfactory but if you look at the second picture down on this page you’ll see what i mean, https://looseandleafy.blogspot.com/2014/02/wordpress-users-and-people-without-blogs.html
I do see what you mean – and you can imagine something being likened to a turkey’s frilly plumage and wattle, maybe?
Although I also think these two trees do happen to come from the area of Turkey.
All the best 🙂
interesting! Can I see the relationship to ours? (C. cornuta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corylus_cornuta#/media/File:Corylus_cornuta_fruit_(5097503079).jpg ) … not so sure.
Interesting – I can see why yours are called “beaked”.
So much variety in nature!
Best wishes 🙂