A friend has a witch hazel and doesn't know what kind it is. Here are photos of the leaves and the actual tree. Can anyone tell what it is from these photos?? Thank you. Susie
Impossible to tell which Hamamelis it might be. A lot depends on the flowers, when it flowers, the colour etc etc.
it is my understanding that there are only two species - H. mollis and H. virginiana - all the rest being cultivars and such. The leaf sample shown above looks pretty close to H. virginiana.
There are 5 or 6 species recognized. However, the most prevalent are Chinese witch hazel and its hybrid with Japanese witch hazel. Virginia witch hazel is also much planted - usually as a root-stock for the other two. But the one shown has the leaves of one of the first two, these leaves are told apart based on specific characters. But sometimes the hybrid is quite close to the Chinese parent, prominent cultivar 'Pallida' for instance was grown for years as a Chinese witch hazel before it became widely recognized that it is actually an example of the hybrid.
