Is Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany deer resistant?
Cercocarpus ledifolius
Light browsing at worst; rarely ruined.
Not listed by Rutgers NJAES. Rated deer-resistant by El Paso County CSU Extension, whose list is a single category, mapped conservatively to Seldom Severely Damaged.
About Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany
Take this rating carefully. The leaves are handsome — small, leathery, curled at the margins, dark green above and silver beneath, evergreen and slightly resinous — but this is not a plant deer ignore. One source calls it the most palatable browse on mule deer range, and they take the evergreen foliage year-round. That is also the failure mode. Where use is heavy the animals eat everything they can reach, and the plants end up hedged into basketball and umbrella shapes; browsed shrubs have been recorded at three to four feet after sixty or seventy years. A garden specimen put in small and left unprotected will simply never make a tree. Fence it until the canopy is clear of browse height, then forget about it. Two things follow from how slowly it grows. It may not reach full height until a hundred years of age, so buy the biggest plant you can find. And it is usually killed outright by fire and sprouts only weakly — prune it lightly, and never into old wood.
Tolerances and uses
- Evergreen
Similar to Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany
Other shrubs with the same deer rating.
- Antelope BitterbrushPurshia tridentataSeldom damaged
- Anthony Waterer SpireaSpiraea x bumaldaZones 3–8Seldom damaged
- Apache PlumeFallugia paradoxaZones 6–10Seldom damaged
- Armstrong JuniperJuniperus chinensis 'Armstrongii'Zones 4–9Seldom damaged
- Autumn OliveElaeagnus umbellataZones 4–9Seldom damaged
- Autumn SageSalvia greggiiZones 6–9Seldom damaged
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Every list Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany belongs to.
Common questions about Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany
- Is Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany deer resistant?
- Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) is rated Seldom Severely Damaged on the Rutgers NJAES four-tier scale. Light browsing at worst; rarely ruined.
- Does Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany grow in shade?
- Yes. Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany tolerates part shade, which makes it one of the options for a shaded bed where deer also browse.
- How big does Curl-Leaf Mountain Mahogany get?
- Mature height is roughly 360–360 in. Growth rate is moderate.