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Mountain Mahogany, Fremont Older/Stevens Creek CP, 7/6/21 by Ronald Horii
I love mountain mahogany. I first saw them this season growing as landscaping along the Guadalupe River Trail in San Jose. I know I've seen them in the wild before, but I couldn't remember where. On 7/6/21, I went for a hike in Stevens Creek County Park and adjoining Fremont Older Preserve in the hills above Cupertino and Saratoga. I was pleasantly surprised to see mountain mahogany growing everywhere on the steep, dry, chaparral-covered hills. Their genus name, Cercocarpus, means "tailed fruit." It's their fruit that's so unique and striking. They have a long, white curled feather-like tail, formed from the flower's stigma. The tails catch the wind and help spread the seeds. Their bright white color really makes the bushes stand out. They are called mountain mahogany because of their reddish wood, which is hard, heavy, and dense like mahogany wood, but they are a member of the rose family. They are not closely related to mahogany trees, and their wood is not useful for making furniture. Indigenous people used the wood for making arrowheads, spears, and digging sticks. The plants are drought-tolerant and can live for more than a century. Here's more info about the plant, which is native to California, as well as the southwestern US and Baja California:
https://calscape.org/loc-California/Cercocarpus-betuloides-(Mountain-Mahogany)?srchcr=sc60e78c2721e3c
Here's more: https://www.smmtc.org/plantofthemonth/Mountain_Mahogany.php
Stevens Creek County Park: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/StevensCreek.aspx
Fremont Older Preserve: https://www.openspace.org/preserves/fremont-older
I love mountain mahogany. I first saw them this season growing as landscaping along the Guadalupe River Trail in San Jose. I know I've seen them in the wild before, but I couldn't remember where. On 7/6/21, I went for a hike in Stevens Creek County Park and adjoining Fremont Older Preserve in the hills above Cupertino and Saratoga. I was pleasantly surprised to see mountain mahogany growing everywhere on the steep, dry, chaparral-covered hills. Their genus name, Cercocarpus, means "tailed fruit." It's their fruit that's so unique and striking. They have a long, white curled feather-like tail, formed from the flower's stigma. The tails catch the wind and help spread the seeds. Their bright white color really makes the bushes stand out. They are called mountain mahogany because of their reddish wood, which is hard, heavy, and dense like mahogany wood, but they are a member of the rose family. They are not closely related to mahogany trees, and their wood is not useful for making furniture. Indigenous people used the wood for making arrowheads, spears, and digging sticks. The plants are drought-tolerant and can live for more than a century. Here's more info about the plant, which is native to California, as well as the southwestern US and Baja California:
https://calscape.org/loc-California/Cercocarpus-betuloides-(Mountain-Mahogany)?srchcr=sc60e78c2721e3c
Here's more: https://www.smmtc.org/plantofthemonth/Mountain_Mahogany.php
Stevens Creek County Park: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/StevensCreek.aspx
Fremont Older Preserve: https://www.openspace.org/preserves/fremont-older
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