Male hazel catkins with a deep red female flower Hazel catkins herald the coming of spring in a drift of gold. The woodland track is fringed with coppiced hazel, slender shrubs with catkins that are perhaps the earliest tree-flowers. Where yellow male catkins are ready to release pollen we look for red female flowers, tiny and fewer. A glimmering light reveals a hazel growing along a fence-line bordering Kentmere Tarn, a shapely tree unlike the wands of woodland coppice shrubs. Its limbs are green with moss, its crown glorious with golden catkins. A play of sunlight and mist shows the hazel deep bronze, then pale gold against the still waters of the tarn. It's enchanting.
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