| Description | American Smoke Tree (C0tinus obovatus) is a large shrub or small tree with puffy smoke-like flowers. The smokey effect derives from the clusters of hairs on the spent flower stalks. |
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| Pronunciation | (ko-TI-nus)(ob-oh-VA-tus) |
| Plant Type | All Plants, Shrubs Deciduous |
| Hardiness Zone | 4-5 |
| Sunlight | full |
| Moisture | average |
| Soil & Site | average, tolerates limey soils |
| Flowers | dioecious (male and female plants) with the male being showier, borne on panicles with pubescent pedicels and peduncles, make the flower look like puffs of smoke |
| Leaves | simple, alternate, entire obovate to elliptic ovate, glossy above and pale and somewhat downy beneath, bluish to dark green with yellow-orange amber red, and reddish purple in the fall |
| Stems | branchlets are aromatic when broken and bleed a gummy sap |
| Dimensions | Can reach 20-30 feet tall by 3/4 spread. |
| Maintenance | Prune to maintain size and shape. It will tolerate hard pruning, cutting back to less than a foot The flowers are formed on last year's wood |
| Propagation | softwood cuttings |
| Notes & Reference | #01-Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (Michael Dirr), #63-How to Recognize Shrubs (Grimm) |
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