Hazlenut is in bloom with subtle yet stunning flowers right now. It’s worth a pause next time you pass one of these leggy, twiggy little shrubs. Right now the leaves are just beginning to bud out, but the branches seem mostly naked but for long dangling caterpillars of the male catkins. But hiding, almost invisible from a distance, are the tiny red female flowers.
Pistillate (female) flower
This minute explosion of showy red stigmas emerges from a simple-looking bud; the whole thing is less than a centimeter long. But I think they are a special & lovely sight to behold.
Check out my full post on hazlenut (Corylus cornuta) here.
The staminate (male) flower is a catkin
Flowers Of Marin 