Smoketree

Smoketree (Cotinus coggygria) is a deciduous shrub native to southern Europe, the Caucasus, and into central China, grown for the hazy, smoke-like plumes that rise from its branches through summer. The true flowers are small and unremarkable; the display comes from the many sterile flower stalks that lengthen and grow fine hairs after bloom, building a billowing pink-to-smoky-gray cloud that can persist for two to three months. Rounded blue-green leaves turn orange, red, and purple in fall.

It thrives on neglect: lean, dry, rocky, alkaline soil produces the tightest growth and best flowering, while rich or consistently moist soil encourages lax, floppy stems and fewer plumes. Full sun is essential for good bloom and color. Smoketree flowers on the previous year's wood, so hard pruning in late winter — cutting the whole shrub back to a low framework — sacrifices that year's smoke display in exchange for larger leaves and more vigorous foliage; for both bloom and good form, prune lightly right after flowering instead. It is generally pest-free but can develop verticillium wilt, seen as sudden one-sided branch dieback.

The wood yields a yellow-orange dye known as young fustic, once widely used in Europe for dyeing wool and leather and as a tanning agent — a use reflected in the plant's older common name, Venetian sumac.