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   There are two species of hazelnuts native to the north Alabama area.  They are American hazelnut, Corylus americana Walter, and beaked filbert, C. cornuta Marsh.  The fruits are distinctive where American hazelnut has a larger nut in a leafy bract that just covers the nut while the smaller nuts of the beaked filbert has a leafy bract that extends far beyond what is needed to cover the nut and appearing to form a beak shape where the nut would be the birds head.  These true nuts are edible although the beaked filbert nuts are rather small and don't have as good of a flavor as the either the American filbert or the commercially produced hazelnuts that include the common filbert, C. avellana L., the giant filbert, C.  maxima Mill., and to a much lesser extent the Turkish hazel, C. colurna L., which is more often used as  root stock since it does not sucker considering that it is the largest tree in the genus rather than a shrub. 
   Although not normally recognized as a wildflower the male flowers of hazelnuts are catkins while the female flowers are in the terminal buds and only evident when the minute, but otherwise attractive red styles are exerted during the  late winter well before the leaves open.  Other than the fruit the most obvious difference is relative size where C. cornuta Marsh. is smaller in all parts, but this is not apparent in specimens where the leaf sizes overlap.  There is still one definitive yet minute identification key where American hazelnut has hairs that are tipped with a gland thus the glad looks like the head of a pin under magnification unlike the glandless hairs of beaked filbert.  These are most evident on the leaves, but the fruit, especially on beaked filbert, is covered with hairs which will break off in the skin like the gloclids of some cacti.  The easiest way to remove them is by coating the affected area with a thin layer of either white glue or wood glue, allowing it to dry, and then peeling it away, which simultaneously removes most of the embedded hairs.