Hybrid Hazelnut

Most hazelnuts you buy at the store come from the European hazelnut species. The European species grows as a single stem tree and has been cultivated for 1000s of years to have larger nuts. These are useful traits but the European hazelnut sadly cannot be successfully grown throughout much of the US due to a disease, eastern filbert blight, which kills the trees. The blight can't survive in parts of the west coast where the majority of domestic hazel production occurs. There is a native hazelnut to the US that thrives across the east coast and midwest. The native hazelnut is resistant to the blight but grows as a multi stem shrub. Nut size ranges but many wild hazelnut are smaller than the cultivated European types.  In an effort to expand hazelnut production capabilities breeders have worked to cross the European and American hazelnuts. Many named varieties have resulted from this work. Two of the most well known varieties are "Jefferson" and "Yamhill". Both of these hybrids have good