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.