Plant · GBIF taxon 3152827
american witch-hazel
Hamamelis virginianaAlso known as Witch-hazel, Common Witch-hazel, Beadwood, Winterbloom
American witch-hazel is a unique woodland shrub that blooms in late autumn just as its golden leaves drop, filling forest understories with fragrant, yellow ribbon-like petals. Its woody seed capsules take a full year to mature, eventually drying and exploding with a sharp snap to shoot shiny seeds up to 10 meters away. Indigenous peoples and early settlers valued distilled extracts of its bark and twigs to soothe skin irritations.
Woodland ShrubFall BloomingNative Plant
1 / 7—observations
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Least ConcernConservation statusIUCN Red List categoriesLCNTVUENCREWEXLeast ConcernRed List categories, explained →
Diet & prey
- Sunlight
- Water
- Soil Nutrients
Predators
- White-tailed Deer
ThreatsHabitat fragmentation, severe deer browsing
HabitatsDeciduous woods, forest margins, damp thickets, stream banks
Life span30–80 years
Size / weightNot available
Classification
- OrderSaxifragales
- FamilyHamamelidaceae
- GenusHamamelis
- SpeciesHamamelis virginiana
Range data is not available yet.
Interaction riskLow
- Low
- Moderate
- High
- Very high
- Why interaction risk is low
- Safe to observe at a normal distance.
Responsible observation
- Autumn Spotting: Look for spindly yellow flowers lingering on bare branches late into November.
- Listen for Explosions: Listen on sunny autumn afternoons for the audible pop of drying seed capsules.
Frequent Companion (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Douglas Goldman · cc-by-sa
Close Relative (c) mayfly1963, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by mayfly1963 · cc-by
Close Relative (c) Plant Image Library, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · cc-by-sa
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