Mountain Mahogany is a very common shrub from 5,000-8,000 feet.  Numerous light gray stems rise to 9 feet from a densely packed base and then lean outward giving a 4 to 8 foot crown spread.  In good years Mountain Mahogany puts on a beautiful display of tiny red and yellow trumpet flowers. These develop into seeds with feathery tails that loft the seeds on the winds of late fall.  Elk and Deer relish Mountain Mahogany twigs and their browsing adds to its straggly look.  In this early spring photo of a Cercocarpus montanus six feet tall, it has not put on its new leaves; the greenery to the left is from a Juniper tree and that to the right is from Ephedra viridis.

Cercocarpus montanus was first collected for science by Edwin James in the Colorado Rockies in 1820 near the Platte River.  It was named by Rafinesque in 1832.

Some people describe Mountain Mahogany flowers as "non-descript" or "inconspicuous". The half inch long and very narrow red flower tubes are flared at the tip and surround golden tipped stamens and a protruding pistil. They are lovely flowers and in masses are not only very attractive but also very pleasantly sweet smelling.

Some people describe Mountain Mahogany flowers as "non-descript" or "inconspicuous". The half inch long and very narrow red flower tubes are flared at the tip and surround golden tipped stamens and a protruding pistil. They are lovely flowers and in masses are not only very attractive but also very pleasantly sweet smelling.

Semi-desert, foothills, montane. Shrublands, woodlands, canyons. Spring.
Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, June 10, 2004.
The Hogback between Shiprock and Farmington, New Mexico, August 5, 2007.

The photograph at left shows a good year for Mountain Mahogany’s brown seeds and feathery plumes that bear the seeds aloft.  (This type of seed dispersal is found on a number of plants in the Southwest; see for example, Fallugia paradoxa and Purshia stansburiana.)

The bottom photograph shows aborted floral tubes following a drought spring.