Look closerPlants
Witch hazel: the shrub that blooms from October into December
When: October to December
Spidery yellow flowers with four crinkled ribbon petals open on bare witch hazel branches from October into December, and the shrub carries this year's flowers and last year's fruit at the same time.
Why this time of year
It blooms when the woods have shut down for the year, which makes it the last flower most people will see outdoors until spring. The flowers open along the twigs after the leaves have dropped, so nothing hides them.
How to notice it
- Look along the wooded edges and the understory for a small multi-stemmed shrub with bare twigs.
- The flowers are yellow and spidery, four narrow crinkled petals each, sitting tight against the branch.
- On the same branch, hunt for the woody two-part seed capsules left from last year.
- Getting flowers and fruit together on one twig is the thing to collect here. The plant's own name is built on it.
Try this with kids: Can you find a flower and an old seed pod on the very same branch?
the name Hamamelis is Greek for at-the-same-time fruit, because it carries flowers and fruit together
Sources
- plants.ces.ncsu.eduCommon witch hazel flowers from October to December, anywhere from late fall to late winter; yellow spidery flowers with four crinkly ribbon-shaped petals, fragrant and showy; fruit is a two-valved dehiscent capsule, green then light brown and woody, containing two black seeds, displaying October to November; the plant can carry both flowers and fruit at the same time, which the genus name refers to
In the guide for October, November, December