ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecol-ogy, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Corylus Avellana. Long-cultivated, this is the main source of filberts of commerce. Kernel of nut eaten raw, roasted, or salted, alone or with other nuts; also used in confections and baked goods. Leaves sometimes used for smoking like tobacco. Hazelnut or filbert oil, a clear, yellow, non-drying oil is used in food, for painting, in perfumes, as fuel oil, for manufacture of soaps, and for machinery. Hazelwood or nutwood is soft, elastic, reddish-white with dark lines, and is easy to split, but is not very durable. In Europe, filberts are those varieties with tubular husks longer than nut, which is usually oblong; cob-nuts are roundish, angular, with husks about length of nut. Kernels of fully dried nuts are firm and brittle and will break with a sharp snap when hit with a hammer or crushed with the fingers.
