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Cercocarpus intricatus
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Cercocarpus intricatus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
An evergreen shrub up to 6 ft high, much and intricately branched; young shoots stiff, dark brown, downy; bark of the older parts ashy-grey. Leaves linear to narrowly lanceolate, made narrower by the decurved margins, wedge-shaped at the base, tapered at the apex to a short fine point, toothless; 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. long, 1⁄12 to 1⁄4 in. wide; dark glossy green, at first hairy but becoming glabrous above; clothed with grey felt beneath and hairy on the midrib and veins; stalk 1⁄16 in. long. Flowers (not seen by me on cultivated plants) described as stalkless, downy, 1⁄6 in. wide and long; calyx-lobes five, triangular. Seed-vessels terminated by a slender feathery tail 1 to 2 in. long.
Native of western N. America, from Oregon to California and Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Like the remainder of the species, the flower has no petals, and its chief ornamental quality is due to the tail of the fruit, which is clothed with white silky hairs. Of the other three species described, this is most nearly allied to C. ledifolius, both having toothless leaves. That species differs in habit, being slender and erect; this is bushy with spreading interlaced branches. The feathery tail is also longer in C. ledifolius.