Return to Native Trees of the Southern Rocky Mountains

A shrub or small tree of northwestern and west-central Colorado, usually 3 to 15 feet tall. It grows in the Pinon-juniper woodlands, and among Ponderosa pine, Douglas-Fir, and even up to Lodgepole pine and the Spruce-Fir forest. The trunk and branches are often crooked. The curled leaves and silky curled tails on the fruit are distinctive. Deer browse on the leaves and shelter in thickets of mahogany. The curly tails on the seeds straighten out in dry weather, and curl again in moist conditions. This flexing helps drive the seeds into the soil.

The scientific name is Cercocarpus ledifolius , Cercocarpus from Greek cerkos , tail, and carpos , fruit. Similar small shrubs of the eastern mountains and foothills are other forms of Mountain-mahogany, Cercocarpus montanus and Cercocarpus intricatus.

Leaves: 1/2 to 1 inches long; 1/3 to 2/3 inches wide, dark green, and leathery. The untoothed edges curl under but the leaf undersides are not completely covered.

Stems: and twigs reddish.

Fruit: feathery, silver-colored, tails are 2 to 3 inches long.

Bark: hard, flaky, up to one inch thick.