Cotinus coggygria

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Cotinus coggygria
Cotinus coggygria5.jpg
Foliage and seed heads
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Anacardiaceae
Genus: Cotinus
Species:
C. coggygria
Binomial name
Cotinus coggygria
Synonyms

Rhus cotinus

Cotinus coggygria, syn. Rhus cotinus, the European smoketree, [1] Eurasian smoketree, smoke tree, smoke bush, Venetian sumach, or dyer's sumach, is a Eurasian species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae.

Contents

Description

It is a multiple-branching deciduous shrub growing to 5–7 metres (16–23 feet) tall with an open, spreading, irregular habit, only rarely forming a small tree. The leaves are 3–8 centimetres (1+143+14 inches) long rounded ovals, green with a waxy glaucous sheen. The autumn colour can be strikingly varied, from peach and yellow to scarlet. The flowers are numerous, produced in large inflorescences 15–30 cm (6–12 in) long; each flower 5–10 millimetres (1438 in) in diameter, with five pale yellow petals. Most of the flowers in each inflorescence abort, elongating into yellowish-pink to pinkish-purple feathery plumes (when viewed en masse these have a wispy 'smoke-like' appearance, hence the common name "smoke tree") which surround the small (2–3 mm or 11618 in) drupaceous fruit that develop.

Fossil record

Macrofossils of C. coggygria from the early Pliocene epoch have been found in Western Georgia in the Caucasus region. [2]

Distribution and habitat

The species is native to a large area from southern Europe, east across central Asia and the Himalayas to northern China.

Uses

Ornamental plant

It is commonly grown as an ornamental plant, with several cultivars available. Many of these have been selected for purple foliage and flowers.

The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-

Dyestuff

The wood was formerly used to make the yellow dye called young fustic (fisetin), [7] now replaced by synthetic dyes. [8]

The species, along with other members of the sumac family, has been used to make red dyes for textiles including weft-wrapped soumak rugs and bags in the Middle East. The names sumac and soumak likely derive from the Arabic and Syriac word ܣܘܡܩܐ 'summāq', meaning "red". [9]

Related Research Articles

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Canna or canna lily is the only genus of flowering plants in the family Cannaceae, consisting of 10 species. Cannas are not true lilies, but have been assigned by the APG II system of 2003 to the order Zingiberales in the monocot clade Commelinids, together with their closest relatives, the gingers, spiral gingers, bananas, arrowroots, heliconias, and birds of paradise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumac</span> Related species of plants in the family Anacardiaceae

Sumac, also spelled sumach, is any of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae). Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, including East Asia, Africa, and North America. Sumac is used as a spice, as a dye, and in medicine.

<i>Prunus cerasifera</i> Species of plum

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<i>Cotinus</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Hydrangea quercifolia</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae

Hydrangea quercifolia, commonly known as oakleaf hydrangea or oak-leaved hydrangea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States, in woodland habitats from North Carolina west to Tennessee, and south to Florida and Louisiana. A deciduous shrub with white showy flower heads, it is grown as a garden plant, with numerous cultivars available commercially.

<i>Rudbeckia laciniata</i> Species of flowering plant

Rudbeckia laciniata, the cutleaf coneflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in both Canada and the United States. Its natural habitat is wet sites in flood plains, along stream banks, and in moist forests. Common names other than cutleaf coneflower include cutleaf, goldenglow, green-headed coneflower, tall coneflower, sochan and thimbleweed.

<i>Rhus typhina</i> Species of flowering plant

Rhus typhina, the staghorn sumac, is a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae, native to eastern North America. It is primarily found in southeastern Canada, the northeastern and midwestern United States, and the Appalachian Mountains, but it is widely cultivated as an ornamental throughout the temperate world.

<i>Lavandula angustifolia</i> Species of plant

Lavandula angustifolia, formerly L. officinalis, is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to the Mediterranean. Its common names include lavender, true lavender and English lavender ; also garden lavender, common lavender and narrow-leaved lavender.

<i>Vaccinium corymbosum</i> Species of plant

Vaccinium corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry, is a North American species of blueberry which has become a food crop of significant economic importance. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern and southern United States, from Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south as far as Florida and eastern Texas. It is also naturalized in other places: Europe, Japan, New Zealand, the Pacific Northwest of North America, etc. Other common names include blue huckleberry, tall huckleberry, swamp huckleberry, high blueberry, and swamp blueberry.

<i>Acer shirasawanum</i> Species of maple

Acer shirasawanum, the Shirasawa maple or fullmoon maple, is a species of maple native to Japan, on central and southern Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū.

<i>Codiaeum variegatum</i> Species of plant

Codiaeum variegatum is a species of plant in the genus Codiaeum, which is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It is native to Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and the western Pacific Ocean islands, growing in open forests and scrub.

<i>Hakonechloa</i> Genus of grasses

Hakonechloa is a genus of bunchgrass in the tribe Molinieae of the grass family, Poaceae, native to eastern Asia.

<i>Sorbaria sorbifolia</i> Species of plant in the family Rosaceae

Sorbaria sorbifolia, the false spiraea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. The common name is also spelled false spirea. Other common names include false goat's beard, sorb-leaved schizonotus, Ural false spirea, and in Chinese: 珍珠梅; pinyin: zhen zhu mei; lit. 'pearl plum'.

<i>Forsythia <span style="font-style:normal;">×</span> intermedia</i> Hybrid flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae

Forsythia × intermedia, or border forsythia, is an ornamental deciduous shrub of garden origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoke tree</span> Index of plants with the same common name

Smoke tree, or Smoketree, may refer to any of several plants, some of whose parts are finely divided and give the appearance of smoke from a distance:

<i>Rhus aromatica</i> Species of shrub

Rhus aromatica, the fragrant sumac, is a deciduous shrub in the family Anacardiaceae native to North America. It is found in southern Canada and nearly all of the lower 48 states except peninsular Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of dyeing terms</span>

Dyeing is the craft of imparting colors to textiles in loose fiber, yarn, cloth or garment form by treatment with a dye. Archaeologists have found evidence of textile dyeing with natural dyes dating back to the Neolithic period. In China, dyeing with plants, barks and insects has been traced back more than 5,000 years. Natural insect dyes such as Tyrian purple and kermes and plant-based dyes such as woad, indigo and madder were important elements of the economies of Asia and Europe until the discovery of man-made synthetic dyes in the mid-19th century. Synthetic dyes quickly superseded natural dyes for the large-scale commercial textile production enabled by the industrial revolution, but natural dyes remained in use by traditional cultures around the world.

<i>Acer palmatum</i> Species of maple

Acer palmatum, commonly known as Japanese maple, palmate maple, or smooth Japanese maple (Japanese: irohamomiji, イロハモミジ, or momiji,, is a species of woody plant native to Japan, Korea, China, eastern Mongolia, and southeast Russia. Many different cultivars of this maple have been selected and they are grown worldwide for their large variety of attractive forms, leaf shapes, and spectacular colors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soumak</span>

Soumak is a tapestry technique of weaving sturdy, decorative fabrics used for carpets, rugs, domestic bags and bedding, with soumak fabrics used for bedding known as soumak mafrash.

<i>Cotinus obovatus</i> Species of flowering plant

Cotinus obovatus syn. C. americanus, the American smoketree, chittamwood or American smokewood, is a rare species of flowering plant in the genus Cotinus of the family Anacardiaceae, native to scattered locations in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee. It is a deciduous, conical shrub growing to 10 m (33 ft) tall by 8 m (26 ft) broad, with oval leaves up to 12 cm (5 in) long. It produces panicles of pink-grey flowers in summer, and its foliage turns a brilliant scarlet in autumn; considered by many to be the most intense fall color of any tree. The smokey effect derives from the clusters of hairs on the spent flower stalks. It is highly sought after and cultivated in botanical gardens worldwide. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants.

References

  1. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "European smoketree". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  2. The History of the Flora and Vegetation of Georgia by Irina Shatilova, Nino Mchedlishvili, Luara Rukhadze, Eliso Kvavadze, Georgian National Museum Institute of Paleobiology, Tbilisi 2011, ISBN   978-9941-9105-3-1
  3. ""Cotinus" 'Flame'". RHS. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  4. ""Cotinus coggygria" Golden Spirit='Ancot'". RHS. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  5. ""Cotinus coggygria" 'Royal Purple'". RHS. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  6. ""Cotinus coggygria" 'Young Lady'". RHS. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  7. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fustic"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 375.
  8. "Young fustic". Britannica.com. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  9. Etymology of Sumac at Etymonline.com and also at "Dictionary English Etymology – Origins – A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English Routledge 1958, Parridge)". Archived from the original on 2014-10-12. Retrieved 2017-09-15. and . Etymology of Rhus at Quattrocchi, Umberto (2000). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology. Vol. IV R-Z. Taylor & Francis US. p. 2306. ISBN   978-0-8493-2678-3.