Flowering hazel and pollination

Male and female flowers of hazel

In the middle of winter between January and February, our hazelnut plants never stand still, but produce elongated male flowers that emit yellow pollen and tiny purple female flowers.

The hazel is a monoecious plant (with male and female flowers) pollinates itself thanks to the wind (anemophilous pollination) which transports the pollen from one flower to another without the need for insects, which are not very active in this period.

The bees, however, on beautiful sunny days take advantage of it to collect pollen, a scarce food, if not even non-existent at this time of the year, which provides them with a very important food for survival and to restart with the breeding of the brood.

Forager bee on hazel flower