Harry Lauder's Walking Stick

This is the strangest thing in my garden. It's Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus avellana contorta), which has just made its male catkins. When the leaves come out, even they are twisted and contorted. It is a variety of hazelnut which occasionally will produce an empty shell. Does it need a mate? I don't know. It came from the Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco and had four dates written on its marker, the last one being 7-15-88, perhaps the last time it was transplanted. Harry Lauder was an entertainer in the early 20th century. He often gave shows for soldiers in World War I and in character as a Scotsman leaned on a twisted hazelwood cane from the shrub which later was named for him.