American Smoke Tree (Cotinus Obovatus)

Features and Characteristics

Cotinus obovatus, commonly called American smoketree, is a small, deciduous, rounded, Missouri native tree or large, upright shrub typically growing 20-30′ tall and occurring on limestone glades, rocky limestone bluffs and bald knobs in the area of the White River in southeast Missouri. Smoketree gets its common name not from the 6-10″ flower clusters (tiny, insignificant, dioecious, yellowish-green flowers) which bloom in June, but from the billowy hairs (attached to elongated stalks on the spent flower clusters) which turn a smoky pink to purplish pink in summer, thus covering the tree with fluffy, hazy, smoke-like puffs. Bluish green leaves are, as the species name suggests, obovate. Foliage turns a variety of colors in the fall (including yellow, red, orange and reddish purple), and produces some of the best fall color of any of the native American trees and shrubs.

Genus name comes from the Greek word kotinus meaning olive.

Specific epithet means egg-shaped with the broadest end uppermost.