Cercocarpus betuloides

Birch leaf mountain mahogany

Family: Rosaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Birch leaf mountain mahogany is a California native shrub found in various mountain ranges and foothill regions in chaparral and woodland habitats. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces small, subtle cream to white flowers with numerous stamens. Growing with spreading to erect branches 1 to 3 meters tall, it forms a dense, multi-stemmed structure with a rugged appearance. Its leaves are widely elliptic to obovate, 1 to 7 centimeters long, with finely toothed edges and a slightly hairy undersurface. The fruit is a distinctive 8 to 12 millimeter strigose structure with a long, feathery style that can extend up to 11 centimeters.

California counties: Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, Orange, San Luis Obispo, Tuolumne, Lake, Shasta, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Riverside, Siskiyou, Trinity, Colusa, Fresno, Alameda, Butte, Santa Clara, Amador, Sierra, Ventura, Tehama, San Mateo, Sonoma, Del Norte, Yolo, Solano, Mendocino, Napa, Glenn, El Dorado, San Benito, Yuba, Madera, Calaveras, Mariposa, Lassen, Monterey, Stanislaus, Sutter, Nevada

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.