General: Utah Mortonia (Mortonia utahensis) is an evergreen shrub with unusual leaves. The leaves are small (to 1/2-inch long) and oval, and they fold down along the edges while the entire leaf folds up (saddle shaped). The leaves are green with pale white margins, and they are quite rough (hairs in the leaves feel like sandpaper).

Utah Mortonia is an uncommon component of vegetation communities on well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils in washes and on upper bajadas and moderate slopes into the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zones. Occasionally they are found on limestone and sandstone cliffs.

Family: Staff-Tree (Celastraceae).

Other Names: Sandpaper Bush

Plant Form: Upright, evergreen shrub.

Height: To about 4 feet (8 feet).

Bark: Whitish to light gray.

Stems:

Leaves: Evergreen. Petiole short. Leaf blade 1/4 to 1/2-inch long, oval, thick and stiff. Leaf green except margin is pale white. Leaf edges fold down slightly, but the entire leaf folds up, and successive leaves seem to fit into the curve of the next.

Flowers: Blooms late spring. Flowers small, white, with five petals.

Seeds: Fruit: capsule with 5 small nutlets

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: 3,000 to 7,000 feet.

Distribution: California to southwestern Utah.

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