European smoketree Anacardiaceae Cotinus
|Leaf: Alternate, simple, oval, entire margin, blunt-tipped, 3 to 5 inches long; blue green above, paler below, several cultivars prized for purple foliage.
Flower: Small, greenish yellow occurring on many finely branched, slender clusters which resemble puffs of smoke; changes color from yellowish to pink as the age; few actual flowers occur.
Fruit: Light brown, 1/8 inch long, kidney-bean shaped; few appear on the slender branched, hairy stems.
Twig: Moderately stout, reddish green or with a purple tint, glaucous, turning gray-brown with age; buds small, leaf scar not lobed.
Bark: Initially light gray-brown, later splitting into thin strips and becoming scaly and darker.
Form: A shrub to 15 feet tall with an equal spread.
Looks like: American smoketree
| Additional Range Information:
Cotinus coggygria is planted in the USDA
hardiness zones shown above and is not known to widely escape
| External Links:
USDA Plants Database
|© Copyright 2016, Virginia Tech|
Dept. of Forest Resources
and Environmental Conservation,
all rights reserved.
Photos and text by: John Seiler,
Edward Jensen, Alex Niemiera,
and John Peterson