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Kent Men of The Trees
Owen Johnson & Richard Moore (2023)
Recommended citation
Johnson, O. & Moore, R. (2023), 'Corylus avellana × sutchuenensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Hybrids bred for nut production and intermediate in features between the parents.
USDA Hardiness Zone 5
RHS Hardiness Rating H6
Corylus sutchuenensis is closely related to C. heterophylla, which is the native species that is generally used for nut production in China; many authorities have treated it as a variety of C. heterophylla (var. sutchuenensis), but recent genetic studies have shown that some genotypes at least are distinct enough to merit specific status (Zhao et al. 2020). A specimen obtained from western China was used by Cecil Farris, an amateur hazelnut breeder from Michigan, as the mother-plant in the development of a series of crosses with the European hazel clone ‘Holder’ in 1971–73. The five most promising seedlings were named ‘Estrella 1’ to ‘Estrella 5’. ‘Estrella 1’ at least proved to be resistant to Eastern Filbert Blight; ‘Estrella 1’ and ‘Estrella 2’ remained available in 2011 from the United States’ National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Oregon (USDA 2016). Farris was also successful in back-crossing ‘Estrella 2’ with the European hazel clone ‘Royal’, and in crossing it with C. × colurnoides ‘Faroka’ (Molnar 2011).