Cercocarpus montanus

Mountain-mahogany is a shrub that reaches up to 2 m high and has smooth, gray or brown bark. The alternate, spoon-shaped leaves, 1-3 cm long, have short petioles, serrated margins on the upper half, and blunt tips. They are dark green and glabrous above but pale and often sparsely hairy beneath. 1-3 flowers are borne on short stalks near the tips of short side branches. The flowers lack petals and consist only of a hairy calyx formed of a tube with 5 reflexed lobes that is 3-6 mm long in bloom but up to 14 mm long in fruit. There are 25-40 stamens. The hairy seeds are up to 12 mm long with tails that are 3-6 cm long.

This species is found on sandstone, granite, limestone ridges, rocky slopes, and valley floors, as well as grasslands, savannahs, juniper-oak, pinyon-juniper, yellow pine woodlands, aspen, and pine-fir forests, at elevations ranging from 800 to 3,000 meters (FNA 2014b).

Although top killed by fire, it can regenerate quickly from root crowns or rhizomes (Gucker 2006).

This species, with some exceptions, typically produces abundant seeds with good germination under favorable conditions (Gucker 2006). Seeds are wind-dispersed and can be distributed up to 140 m from the parent plant (Gucker 2006). Seeds may also be dispersed by small mammals. This species can spread asexually, through rhizomatous spread or by above ground stems that often proliferate with browsing or fire damage (Gucker 2006).