Alaska-grown hazelnuts? A changing climate is helping growers coax unusual crops from northern soil

Alaska-grown hazelnuts? A changing climate is helping growers coax unusual crops from northern soil​

 

Corylus cornuta is native to BC. So, it's sort of in the neighborhood already. Otherwise, the "highly invasive European bird cherry" the article mentions avoiding and the sweet cherry it mentions growing are the same thing (Prunus avium). Unless in the first case they are talking about P. padus. Both are naturalized in North America, but P. avium is the one that comes up all over in western Washington, is able to compete with native trees in wooded lands around local communities. Resulting in specimens here over 100 ft. tall. (And the thankfully sterile hybrid P. x pugetensis resulting from spontaneous crossing with P. emarginata being fairly prevalent).

 

If they mention Bird Cherry and being invasive in Alaska, that'll be Prunus padus (which has a strongly northern distribution in Europe), not Prunus avium (Wild Cherry).

 

Genetic differentiation and precolonial Indigenous cultivation of hazelnut (Corylus cornuta, Betulaceae) in Western North America | PNAS