Witch-hazels or witch hazels (Hamamelis) are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with three species in North America (H. ovalis,[1] H. virginiana, and H. vernalis), and one each in Japan (H. japonica) and China (H. mollis). The North American species are occasionally called winterbloom.[2][3]
The witch-hazels are deciduous shrubs or (rarely) small trees growing to 3 to 7.5 m tall, even more rarely to 12 m tall. The leaves are alternately arranged, oval, 5 to 15 cm long, and 2.5 to 10 cm wide, with a smooth or wavy margin. The genus name, Hamamelis, means "together with fruit", referring to the simultaneous occurrence of flowers with the maturing fruit from the previous year.[4] H. virginiana blooms in September–November while the other species bloom from January–March. Each flower has four slender strap-shaped petals 1 to 2 cm long, pale to dark yellow, orange, or red. The fruit is a two-part capsule 1 cm long, containing a single 0.6 cm glossy black seed in each of the two parts; the capsule splits explosively at maturity in the autumn about eight months after flowering, ejecting the seeds with sufficient force to fly for distances of up to 9 m, thus another alternative name "snapping hazel".[citation needed]
The name witch in witch-hazel has its origins in Middle English wiche, from the Old English wice, meaning "pliant" or "bendable", and is not related to the word witch meaning a practitioner of magic.[5] Jacob George Strutt's 1822 book, Sylva Britannica attests that "Wych Hazel" was used in England as a synonym for wych elm, Ulmus glabra;[6] The use of the twigs as divining rods, just as hazel twigs were used in England, may also have,[citation needed] by folk etymology, influenced the "witch" part of the name.[3]
Hamamelis mexicana is sometimes considered a species,[8] though as of 2020Kew's Plants of the World Online considers it a variety of H. virginiana.[7][update]
The Persian ironwood, a closely related tree formerly treated as Hamamelis persica, is now given a genus of its own, as Parrotia persica, as it differs in the flowers having just sepals and no petals. Other closely allied genera are Parrotiopsis, Fothergilla, and Sycopsis (see under Hamamelidaceae). Witch-hazels are not closely related to the true Corylus hazels, though they have a few superficially similar characteristics which may cause one to believe that they are.[clarification needed]
They are popular ornamental plants, grown for their clusters of rich yellow to orange-red flowers, which begin to expand in the autumn as or slightly before the leaves fall and continue throughout the winter.