B49 



MOUNTAIN-MAHOGANIES 



Cercocar'pus spp. 



The genus Cercomrpus, which belongs to the rose family (Ros- 

 aceae), consists of about 19 species, of which 5 are wholly con- 

 fined to Mexico, the remaining 14 occurring in the Western States, 

 mainly in the Southwest, the Great Basin, and California. The 

 members of this genus inhabit dry, interior, and mountainous re- 

 gions. The generic name comes from the Greek kerkos (a tail) and 

 karpos (a fruit), referring to the peculiar, long-tailed "seeds", which 

 are, perhaps, the most characteristic feature of the genus. The com- 

 mon name, mountain-mahogany, refers to the mountainous habitat 

 characteristic of the genus and to the fact that the wood is very 

 hard and heavy, and often reddish brown in color, suggesting that of 

 true mahogany, a well-known tropical American tree (bwietenia 

 mahagoni). Many other names, such as birchleaf mahogany, black- 

 brush, buckbrush, deerbrush, hardtack, sweetbrush, and tallow- 

 bush, are applied to these shrubs in various localities, but most of 

 these names are not particularly distinctive, and some are misleading. 



The genus, as a whole, is of considerable importance in the West 

 because it furnishes palatable and, in some cases, yearlong browse 

 for cattle, sheep, and goats. The species with broad leaves are dis- 

 tinctly more palatable, and hence more valuable than are those with 

 narrow, leathery leaves. 



Several mountain-mahogany species, which have as yet no well 

 accepted specific English names, in particular C. breviflorus and C. 

 eximius, possessing rather small, thickish but not leathery leaves, 

 are intermediate in forage value between the montanus and ledi- 

 folius groups. G. breviflorus is considered one of the best browse 

 species for all classes of livestock, especially sheep and goats ? in 

 southern New Mexico. C. eximius is grazed by all classes of live- 

 stock and is rated as first-class goat browse in the New Mexico 

 mountains. 1 



The seasoned wood is very hard and, at the same time, brittle. 

 Most of the species are valued for firewood. 



The species of mountain-mahogany are half evergreen or ever- 

 green, rather widely branched shrubs or small trees, with furrowed 

 or scaly bark and simple, alternate, or mostly clustered, short- 

 stalked, straight-veined leaves, which are toothed (dentate) or un- 

 toothed (entire) on the margin. The short, lateral, spurlike, often 

 spinelike, branchlets are conspicuously roughened for many years 

 by the crowded, narrow, horizontal scars of the fallen leaves. The 

 inconspicuous, greenish-white or reddish flowers occur in groups or 

 are solitary in the axils of the leaves. There are no petals. The 

 elongated, cylindric calyx tube expands abruptly into a five-lobed, 

 petallike portion which falls off (deciduous), and bears the many 

 stamens inserted in two or three rows on its inner rim. This tube 

 surrounds the one-celled ovary, persists in fruit and envelops more 



1 Dayton, W. A. IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS. U. S. Dept. Agr. Misc. Pub. 

 101, 214 pp., illus. 1931. 



