Shrubs , open spreading, to (4--)6 m. Bark light brown, smooth. Branches ascending; twigs glabrous to sparsely pubescent, without glandular hairs. Winter buds containing inflorescences ovoid, 3--5 × 3--4 mm, apex acute. Leaves: petiole glabrous to moderately pubescent, without glandular hairs. Leaf blade ovate to obovate or narrowly elliptic, often nearly angular and lobulate near apex, 5--12 × 3.5--9 cm, base narrowly cordate to narrowly rounded, margins coarsely and often irregularly doubly serrate, apex usually distinctly acuminate; surfaces abaxially glabrous to moderately pubescent, usually pubescent on major veins and in vein axils. Inflorescences: staminate catkins usually in clusters of 2--3, 4.5--6 × 0.5--0.8 cm; peduncles mostly 0.5--2 mm. Nuts in clusters of 2--6; involucral tubular beak long, narrow, 2--3(--4) times length of nuts, densely bristly. 2 n = 22, 28.

Flowering very early spring. Moist to dry roadsides, edges of woods, fencerows, waste places, and thickets, or as understory in open woodlands; 100--500 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Ala., Colo., Conn., Ga., Idaho, Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.

Like Corylus americana Walter, the beaked hazel ( C . cornuta subsp. cornuta ) is a weedy shrub and is sometimes considered a pest in carefully managed northern forests. The fruits are similar to those of C . americana , except that the surrounding bracts are connate into a long, narrow, tubular beak. Vegetative individuals of C . cornuta subsp. cornuta can be distinguished from C . americana by the absence of glandular hairs on the petioles and young twigs.