Betulaceae, the birch family, includes six genera of deciduous nut-bearing trees and shrubs, including the birches, alders, hazels, hornbeams, hazel-hornbeam, and hop-hornbeams numbering a total of 167 species. They are mostly natives of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with a few species reaching the Southern Hemisphere in the Andes in South America. Their typical flowers are catkins and often appear before leaves.
Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus Carpinus in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The hazel (Corylus) is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae. The fruit of the hazel is the hazelnut.
The spotted nutcracker, Eurasian nutcracker, or just nutcracker, is a passerine bird slightly larger than the Eurasian jay. It has a much larger bill and a slimmer looking head without any crest. The feathering over its body is predominantly chocolate brown with distinct white spots and streaks. The wings and upper tail are virtually black with a greenish-blue gloss. It is one of three species of nutcracker. The large-spotted nutcracker, was formerly considered a subspecies of the spotted. The other member of the genus, Clark's nutcracker, occurs in western North America.
Corylus avellana, the common hazel, is a species of hazel native to Europe and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Iberia, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, north to central Scandinavia, and east to the central Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and northwestern Iran. It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the traditional field boundaries in lowland England. The wood was traditionally grown as coppice, the poles cut being used for wattle-and-daub building and agricultural fencing.
Corylus maxima, the filbert, is a species of hazel in the birch family Betulaceae, native to southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, from the Balkans to Ordu in Turkey.
Corylus colurna, the Turkish hazel or Turkish filbert, is a deciduous tree native to southeast Europe and southwest Asia, from the Balkans through northern Turkey to northern Iran. It is also found grown wildly in the forests of Western Himalayan range in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh particularly in the temperate regions of districts of Kullu, Shimla, Kinnaur district and Chamba district.
Corylus cornuta, the beaked hazelnut, is a deciduous shrubby hazel with two subspecies found throughout most of North America. The Eastern beaked hazel is found from southern Canada south to Georgia, while the Western beaked hazel occurs along the west coast from Alaska to California.
Ostryopsis is a small genus of deciduous shrubs belonging to the birch family Betulaceae. The species have no common English name, though hazel-hornbeam has been suggested, reflecting their similarities to the closely related hazels and hop-hornbeams.
The Yunnan box turtle is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae. It is believed to be endemic to Yunnan, China and was suspected to be extinct since the early 20th century; the last verified specimen was collected in 1940.
Bulleyia is a genus of plants in the family Orchidaceae. It is either epiphytic or lithophitic, growing on tree branches or on rocks on steep hillsides. The genus is monotypic and represented only by Bulleyia yunnanensis, native to the Himalayas of Assam, Bhutan, eastern India and Yunnan.
Panisea yunnanensis is a species of plant in the family Orchidaceae. It is native to China and to Vietnam.
Corylus americana, the American hazelnut or American hazel, is a species of deciduous shrub in the genus Corylus, native to the eastern and central United States and extreme southern parts of eastern and central Canada.
Corylus colchica also known as Corylus iberica is a species of hazelnut endemic to Armenia and Georgia in the Caucasus region. It can tolerate more frost than many others of its genus. It produces small edible nuts in September. It is not commercially grown for food because the nuts are small in size. The nut's shell is oval and the nut is round. The tree is sometimes crossed with the common hazel to make a hybrid that can grow in colder climates.
Remusatia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. It contains 4 known species, one of which was described in 1987. This species was initially placed in genus Gonatanthus called Gonatanthus ornatus. After the genus had been sunk into Remusatia its new name was Remusatia ornatus, but it was later changed to Remusatia hookeriana.
Ypsilandra is a genus of at least six herbaceous plant species, first described as a genus in 1888. This genus is a member of the Melanthiaceae and is native to East Asia.
Corylus chinensis, common names Chinese filbert and Chinese hazel, is a deciduous tree native to western China. This tree is considered vulnerable due of its rarity.
Peliosanthes is a genus of flowering plants found in eastern Asia. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Nolinoideae.
A tree fork is a bifurcation in the trunk of a tree giving rise to two roughly equal diameter branches. These forks are a common feature of tree crowns. The wood grain orientation at the top of a tree fork is such that the wood's grain pattern most often interlocks to provide sufficient mechanical support. A common "malformation" of a tree fork is where bark has formed within the join, often caused by natural bracing occurring higher up in the crown of the tree, and these bark-included junctions often have a heightened risk of failure, especially when bracing branches are pruned out or are shaded out from the tree's crown.
