Very start of flowering hazel trees in The Netherlands

2017-12-11T08:59:02Z

One of the species that we focus on with the European Phenology Campaign is Hazel. Last week I saw my first hazel trees starting to flower. This is very early and it is snowing! Yesterday I publised a news story on Nature Today (currently only in Dutch) which was picked up by many newspapers and this morning I gave a live interview on one of the national radio channels. It looks like that people that who are sensitive to pollen of Hazel will experience hay fever symptoms during Christmas.

The peak of first flowering for Hazel used to be at 13 February in the period 1900 till 1968. Only 0.5% of the observations were done before 31 of December. Since the start of our current Dutch phenological network 'De Natuurkalender' in 2001 the first flowering observations peak 20 days earlier at 24 of January and already 4.5 % of the observations is done before 31 December. This year is extremely early due to the combination of a very warm October and very warm November with before that a relatively cold September. Facinating developments.

What is the Hazel doing in your area? Please make also a time-lapse video with the GrowApp of the Hazel in your area and add the #hazel in the comments field so we can easily filter all hazel animations on www.growapp.today.

Kind regards,
Arnold van Vliet