Mountain Mahogany – Cercocarpus breviflorus Gray var. breviflorus Bonsai – Colorado Rocky Mountain Bonsai

Scroll down for links to the development trees.

Mountain Mahogany primarily grows in the Western region of the United States. The USDA shows it growing from Kansas out to the west coast and north from Texas to South Dakota.

Jerry Morris our famous Colorado yamadori collector has told me that transplanting Mountain Mahogany is very difficult and they usually die during the process. I have tried keeping commercial/nursery stock numerous times only to see them die after a while. I did manage to keep a nice nursery stock tree alive for around 4 years and then it just died after its final chopping back. I tried one more and it did not make it a year.

I am having very good luck with my yamadori trees that were collected from New Mexico. Two trees have already been styled and they look good. Branches on these trees are very brittle and are easy to break when wiring and moving them into the proper position. The leaves on these trees are very tiny and lend themselves to Bonsai really well. One of the best attributes about these yamadori trees is the deadwood on them. The deadwood ranges from silver/gray looking deadwood with varying degrees of dead bark covered with lichens. All of this can be on one tree. Mountain Mahogany yamadori sizes range from small to very large and could almost be called a 2 man tree. The tree does have a small whitish-yellow flowers and they develop a semi-curved feather type seed head. I think the seed head might look really nice on a finished tree. Leaves are about the size of a Boxwood leaf.

Cercocarpus breviflorus Gray var. breviflorus is the species that I have. Here is some general information about Mountain Mahogany:

Common Names: Mountain Mahogany

Botanical & Ecological Characteristics:

Cercocarpus by Wikipedia

Cercocarpus betuloides by Oregon State University

Cercocarpus by ITIS Report

Cercocarpus montanus by Missouri Botanic Garden

Cercocarpus montanus by Wildflower Center

Cercocarpus montanus Raf. alderleaf mountain mahogany USDA

Cercocarpus montanus var. paucidentatus by SEINet

Cercocarpus Rosaceae by World Botanical Associates

Island Mountain-mahogany by California Native Plant Society

Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius Nutt.) by (USDA) United States Department of Agriculture

Mountain mahogany : Cercocarpus montanus by Sante Fe Botanical Garden

Plant Profile for Cercocarpus Kunth mountain mahogany by USDA

Southwest Colorado Wildflowers, Cercocarpus montanus II by Southwest Colorado Wildflowers

Southwest Colorado Wildflowers, Cercocarpus intricatus by Southwest Colorado Wildflowers

Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness by Western New Mexico University Department of Natural Sciences

Bonsai Information:

Mountain Mahogany is relatively new species being used for Bonsai and there is little information available. This species is hard to transplant, older yamadori specimens can have wonderful deadwood rivaling Western junipers. They have very small and different shaped leaves depending on what variety of tree you have. They are generally very hardy depending on where the tree was collected. The seed heads are unusual and they may or may not make a good feature on tree. They can be evergreen depending on where you live. They do seem to back bud really well. Nursery trees do not seem to survive the Bonsai process and I do not recommend them. Branches are very brittle and easy to break on yamadori trees.

trip to Jerry’s nursery by the miserable gardener