Early European settlers brought hazelnut trees to New Zealand. They planted them in gardens and orchards. Now the tree grows wild in old gardens, along hedgerows, and in waste places. It is a multi-stemmed shrub or small tree in the landscape. The hazelnut is often multi-stemmed. It grows as a shrub rather than a single-trunked tree. It reaches up to eight metres in height. The leaves are rounded, toothed, and soft to the touch. The flowers are the story. The male catkins are long and yellow. They hang from the branches in winter. The female flowers are tiny and red. They are hidden in the buds. The fruit is the prize. The hazelnut is sweet and rich. It tastes of autumn. Hazelnuts have escaped from cultivation in New Zealand. They grow wild in old gardens. They stand along hedgerows. They occupy corners of old farms. These wild trees are living history. They preserve varieties no longer grown commercially. A gnarled old hazelnut shrub in an abandoned orchard might be seventy years old. Its nuts are still sweet. Its catkins are still yellow. The wood of the hazelnut is flexible and strong. The young stems (withies) were used for making hurdles, baskets, and thatching spars. The wood was used for walking sticks and tool handles. The hazelnut was a tree of utility. It belonged to the hedgerow and the farmstead. To see an old hazelnut in flower is to see a piece of history. The settlers who planted it are gone. The shrub remains. It produces catkins every winter. It produces nuts every autumn. It drops its leaves every winter. It does not know it is a stranger here. It just grows. It fruits. It feeds the birds. The hazelnut is not native. It is not endemic. It is an immigrant. It is a settler. It is a shrub that made a new home in a new land. It has been here for two hundred years. It will be here as long as the hedgerows remain.