Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
16.1 INTRODUCTION
Since ancient times, the nuts of cultivated and wild representatives of the genus
Cory-
lus
L. are used with the aim of food. It is explained with the high nutritive and dietary
value of the kernels, as they consist of 45-47 percent of lipids, where oleic and pal-
mitic acids dominate (85 and 10%), 12-25 percent proteins, sugar, vitamins, including
40-50 mg per 100 g of tocopherol (vitamin E) [1, 2].
The history of hazelnut versatile use is full of secrecy and unearthly effects. As we
all know, in the culture of Ancient Greece and Turkey hazelnut is the symbol of peace.
According to the myths and legends of an Ancient Greece, the warder of the God of
commerce Hermes was made from hazelnut. Since that time, the all known “magic
wand” or “magic staff,” which was used by treasure divers, were produced from hazel-
nut. Hazelnut was dispensed with the magical properties due to the belief of many na-
tions. Arabs, for instance, believed that the wand made of hazelnut protect their own-
ers from all the viciousness. The people from the north Europe supposed that hazelnut
protects the home from lightning and drives off the witches. Besides, hazelnuts were
used as the symbol of fertility in wedding ceremonies, and the guarantee of fortunate
marriage and numerous physically health posterity. Vergili glorifi ed the hazelnut as the
plant that deserves a lot of estimation, even more than “grapes or laurel” [2].
There is only one native species of hazelnut,
Corylus avellana
, in the natural fl ora
of Ukraine. We do not know exactly when the hazelnut appeared; the opinions of some
scientists differ and dated from the beginning of neogen-paleogen in the Cainozoic era
till the end of Cretaceous period of Mesozoic era. Anyway, after the pleystotsen icing-
over (approximately at the eight-fi ve millenary before BC), hazelnut dominated in the
natural fl ora of the northern Europe [1].
At the end of between ice age, because of the beginning of the fall in temperature,
plants and animals perished in mass, thus
Corylus avellana
completely disappeared
from the forests of the northern Europe. However, the life was saved at the some
ecological niches, and seclusion center. Hazelnut also was saved and distributed in
the future over the rest of the useful territory. The mass distribution of the hazelnut
C.
avellana
over Europe started after the subarctic time when the pine tree dominated in
the forests. Hazelnut moved to the north together with the birch, alder tree, oak tree,
and pine tree. Under the favorable climate conditions, the hazelnuts under the tent of
pine tree created such thick brushwood that it prevented the natural renewal of the
other plants, such as pine tree and birch tree. Owing to it, at the place of pine and birch
forests, hazelnut groves appeared. The fi r tree became an essential obstacle for the fur-
ther distribution of hazelnut. However, the loose dominating positions in the general
vegetation did not restrict the natural habitat of the hazelnut [1, 2].
Together with the development of intense horticulture, hazelnut gained importance
as a nut fruit crops. Moreover, hazelnut won its place in the ornamental horticulture.
Nowadays, the species
C. colurna
and
C. maxima Mill.
are widely used in the planting
of greenery of different towns; the rest of species are kept at the collections of botani-
cal gardens, dendroparks, and reserves. However, the experience of cultivation of the
most of the valuable forms of the northern American and Eastern Asia species testifi es
the great prospects for the hazelnut establishment in the ornamental horticulture [1].
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