HAZELNUTS AND DECEASED POLITICIANS

AMERICAN HAZELNUTS

BEAKED HAZELNUT

BAKED HAZEL BUSH

BEAKED HAZEL DORMANT BUDS

BEAKED HAZEL LEAVES

Friday,  8:00 AM.  31 degrees F, wind W, calm to light.  The sky is clear and it is a sunny morning for a change.  The humidity is down to 75% and the barometer is steady at 30.19".  The local weather forecast calls for rain and possible snow this afternoon into tomorrow, but there is no sign of it as yet.  I had best get some hard work done this morning.
   One of the things I find most interesting about fall leaf colors is that they can help identify trees and shrubs that at other seasons blend in with surrounding vegetation and are rather anonymous, at least to the non-expert, casual observer.  I have mentioned the distinguishing fall colors of many trees and shrubs in recent blogs.  Different species of trees and shrubs often exhibit their coloration, or loose their leaves, at different times, helping them to stand out and be recognized.
   A case in point are the native hazel shrubs, the one pictured here being the beaked hazelnut, Corylus cornuta, which still retains its  rusty yellow-greeen leaves after many other species have lost theirs.  The other hazel species native to Wisconsin is the American hazelnut, Corylus americana, quite similar in leaf characteristics except that the fall color can turn to shades of red and purple.   If I can find a good fall leaf color photo of it I will post it.
   The fruits of the two hazel species (nuts in a distinctive husk) are very different from each other, as evidenced by the above photos.  The genus Corylus is in the birch family, the Betulaceae.  I have written about hazelnuts in previous blogs, and that information can be recalled by using the blog search engine.
   I see that two small communities in the State of Washington  each elected dead men as their mayors in   Tuesday's election.  The excuse that has been given for these events is that in each case the candidates died after the ballots had been printed.  But since the dead candidates out-polled living write-in candidates, I wonder if the reason they were elected is that the voters felt that  a dead politician would be preferable in office to a live one.