As many of our subscribers correctly wrote, this is common hazel. The shrub got this name from the shape of the leaves, resembling the body of a bream. More popular names: Bream, Lyastovina, Zaleshchina, Walnut bush, Oreshina.

Scientific name – Corylus avellana (L.) H. Karst. For the helmet-like shape of the plyus, the hazel got its generic Latin name ‘corylus’ from the Greek ‘korys’ – helmet. The specific name of hazel ‘avellana’ comes from the city of ‘Avellano’ in Italy, which was the center of cultivation of this valuable nut-bearing plant under the Romans.

In Peter’s times, hazel plantations were planted in the bosquettes of the Summer Garden, they received nutritious nuts and wood from them for turning crafts.
During the reign of Empress Elizabeth, the Lombard nut brought from Europe was planted in the Third Summer Garden (now Mikhailovsky). This is a large hazel (Corylus maxima), which naturally grows in southern Europe and is the ancestor of cultivated varieties of hazelnuts. But the climate of St. Petersburg did not suit the Lombard nut, and after a few years all the plantings were killed. Garden masters had to plant common hazel again.

Hazel, planted in bosquets during the restoration of the Summer Garden in 2011, has taken root well and pleases with its fruiting every year.

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