Common name:Creeping Mahonia
Botanical name:Mahonia repens

The creeping Mahonia is a low-growing shrub with a creeping habit, making it well suited as an understory groundcover. It grows about 12 to 15 inches tall and spreads 3 to 4 feet, though, due to its stoloniferous ways, will slowly spread wider. It has spiny, holly-like foliage that emerges red and matures to a dull green; though evergreen, leaves take on a bronzy-purple fall hue. Yellow, fragrant flowers bloom April and May, and are followed by berries that ripen purple in the fall and persist all winter. Exceptional four-season beauty. There are some planted at the Greater Avenues Water Conservation Garden.

Common name:Curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany
Botanical name:Cercocarpus ledifolius

Curl-leaf mountain mahoghany is a Utah native, useful as a large shrub or pruned as a small tree. It is one of the few native broad-leafed evergreens. It grows with a multi-stemmed, bushy, upright habit to about 8 to 12 feet tall and wide, though with supplemental watering it may grow taller. Flowers are small and reddish, blooming June to August. They are followed by an interesting curling, hairy, wiry plume. that is luminescent when back-lit. Bark is reddish brown and furrowed. Useful in a shrub or foundation border, or as part of a screen.