Ozark Witch Hazel

Hamamelis vernalis Origin: Ozarks (via New Jersey) Improvement status: Cultivated Seeds per packet: ~20 BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED Life cycle: Perennial Ozark witch hazel is a close cousin of the more widespread and better-known American witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), but it differs in some major ways. For one, it has a much smaller native range, confined to a small region of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, though it can be grown much farther afield. It also flowers in late winter through early spring, while the American witch hazel flowers in late fall through early winter. Ozark witch hazel differs as well in usually having red flowers (very rarely yellow). It's also regularly used as a landscaping plant.The name "witch hazel" said to derive from the long tradition of using a branch of the plant as divining rods for "dowsing" for water (using sticks to divine where the best place is to dig a well, since the twigs are said to bend slightly downward water