Leaves obovate to oval, acute or rounded at apex, cuneate at base, finely serrate above the middle with straight or incurved glandular teeth, dark green on the upper surface, pale and villose-pubescent or tomentose sometimes becoming nearly glabrous on the lower surface, 1′—1¼′ long, and ⅓′—½′ wide, with a thin midrib, and 5—8 pairs of slender primary veins more or less deeply impressed on the upper side of the leaf; petioles densely villose, often becoming glabrous, about ¼′ in length; stipules scarious, acuminate. Flowers nearly sessile, in 1—3-flowered clusters; calyx-tube densely villose, about ⅓′ long, the limb turbinate, villose on the outer surface, glabrous on the inner surface, ¼′ wide. Fruit on slender slightly villose pedicels ¼′—⅓′ in length; mature calyx-tube often slightly gibbous, deeply cleft at apex, light chestnut-brown, sparingly villose, 1/12′ in diameter; akene covered with stiff spreading hairs; style 2′—3′ in length.
A tree, occasionally 25° high, with a single trunk, small ascending and spreading branches forming an open irregular head, and slender red-brown branchlets covered when they first appear with loose pubescence, soon becoming glabrous; more often a tall or low shrub with several stems. Bark smooth, separating into thin deciduous scales.
Distribution. Common and widely distributed over the California coast ranges from Siskiyou County to the Santa Monica and San Bernardino Mountains.
4. [Cercocarpus ledifolius] Nutt.
Leaves narrow-lanceolate, lance-elliptic or oblanceolate, acute at the ends, apiculate, entire with thick revolute margins, coriaceous, reticulate-veined, puberulous while young, and at maturity dark green, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface and pale or rufous and tomentulose on the lower surface, resinous, ½′—1′ long, and ⅓′—⅔′ wide, with a broad thick midrib deeply grooved on the upper side, and obscure primary veins; persistent until the end of their second summer; petioles broad, about ⅛′ in length; stipules nearly triangular. Flowers solitary, sessile in the axils of the clustered leaves, ⅔′ long; calyx hoary-tomentose. Fruit: mature calyx-tube almost ½′ long, nearly cylindric, rather larger above than below, 10-ribbed, obscurely 10-angled, slightly cleft at apex, hoary-tomentose; akene pointed at the ends, obscurely angled, chestnut-brown, ¼′ long, covered with long pale or tawny hairs; style 2′—3′ in length, generally contracted by 1 or 2 partial corkscrew twists.
A resinous slightly aromatic tree, occasionally 40° high, with a short trunk sometimes 2½° in diameter, stout spreading usually contorted branches forming a round compact head, and red-brown branchlets coated at first with pale pubescence, soon becoming glabrous, frequently covered with a glaucous bloom, silver gray or dark brown in their second year, and for many years marked by the conspicuous elevated leaf-scars. Bark red-brown, divided by deep broad furrows, and broken on the surface into thin persistent plate-like scales, becoming on old trunks 1′ thick. Wood bright clear red or rich dark brown, with thin yellow sapwood of 15—20 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Dry gravelly arid slopes at altitudes of 5000°—9000°; mountain ranges of the interior region of the United States from eastern Washington and Oregon, to lower Green and Snake River valleys, Wyoming, and through Utah and Nevada to southwestern Colorado; in California to the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, the northern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains, on Mt. Pinos, San Diego County, and on the northern coast mountains (Snow Mountain to Scott Mountain, Jepson).