Filbert – The Daily Flower for 27 August

No, filbert is not a new addition to the white-collared anti-heroic clan that is Scott Adam’s comic strip. Although it wouldn’t be amiss if the cartoon ever resolved to a happy ending: for a filbert flower is in fact a blossom of Corylus maxima, the species of hazel that connotes reconciliation.

The catkins of Corylus maxima by TeunSpaansr

The flowering parts of the filbert are actually catkins (which means the flowers have no petals), and are either male (a buttery yellow) or female (bright red). Although they may resemble cats’ tails, their ‘gender-based’ colouration makes them rather unlike cats at all – for a female gingery feline is quite a rare find.

Filbert would be a rather good name for a cat, come to think of it, but it was actually once the name of a saint – Saint Philibert, a monastery-founding abbot, whose feast day is on 20 August (why didn’t the floriographers just switch this flower with meadow crowfoot?), which is apparently about when the nuts of the filbert tree are ready to eat. 

Good for giving to: Sulkypusses who need to be appeased.

Great filberts in literature: Empty handed again! Can you help with a poem about filbert, or a reference to it in a novel?

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, filbert, Corylus maxima, floriography