Upright shrubs reach 6–13 feet tall (2–4 m) with leafy, branching limbs 1/4–2 inches diameter (0.5–5 cm), and small, cup-shaped, creamy flowers. Note the seeds have long, twisted, feathery tails. Taproots can reach 6 feet deep depending on soil conditions.

FLOWERS: April–August. Flowers solitary or in clusters of 2–3, small, cup-like, creamy colored, 5 united sepals but no petals, floral tube pinkish; seeds have twisted, white, feathery tails 2–4 3/4 inches long (5–12 cm).

LEAVES: Alternate, often clustered on short spurs, short-stalked, winter deciduous; blades lance-shaped to egg-shaped, 3/8–2 inches long (1–5 cm), by 0.2 to 1 inch wide (5–25 mm); edges serrated above middle, surfaces flat (not rolled inward), strongly veined, short-hairy when young, tips rounded.

HABITAT: Dry slopes, washes, rocky outcrops; pinyon-juniper foothills, ponderosa-Douglas fir forests.

ELEVATION: 5,000–10,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Hairy Mountain Mahogany, C. breviflorus, nearly statewide, has hairy, evergreen leaves 1/4–1 3/8 inches long (7–35 mm). Curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany, C. ledifolius, reported in San Juan Co., has leaves with edges rolled over nearly to midrib.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide except se plains in mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Curry, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.