# American Smoketree (Cotinus obovatus)

> Perhaps the best fall color of any native tree, on a small, drought-proof limestone specialist.

Also called chittamwood, American smokebush. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-smoketree/

![American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus) branches with rounded leaves and airy pink flower plumes](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/american-smoketree-2-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Charles T. Bryson, Public domain · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACotinus_obovatus_1116006_3x2.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 20 to 30 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 8
- Grows wild in: Rocky ground
- Native range: 8 states, north to [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO) and south and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN) and [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX))
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Dry fruit, June to September
- First crop: 3 to 4 years
- Mature spread: 30 ft
- Traits: Fall color, Showy flowers, Drought tolerant, Rare
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

American smoketree is rare in the wild, scattered on limestone bluffs from Tennessee to Texas, but it is hardy, tough and spectacular in the garden. Airy pink flower plumes give the smoke effect in June; in October the rounded blue-green leaves turn orange, scarlet and purple all at once. A specimen for a dry sunny slope, in view of the house for its October color.

## Size, growth and what to expect

American smoketree grows slowly, about a foot a year in youth on an average site by our growth estimator's model. It matures at 20 to 30 feet tall and about as wide, a short-trunked tree with an open crown and gray-brown bark that breaks into scaly plates with age. Individual trees have reached 221 years.

The tiny yellow-green flowers open in May and June in clusters 6 to 10 inches long. The smoke comes afterward, when hairs on the spent clusters turn smoky pink through summer. Most plants are male or female, though some carry both kinds of flower, and the males give the better smoke. Few fruits set, each a dry, one-seeded kernel about an eighth of an inch long. The wood once yielded a yellow dye and made fence posts and tool handles.

It grows wild on rocky limestone ground from Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Alabama west through the Ozarks to Oklahoma, with outlying stands on the Edwards Plateau of Texas.

## How to grow American Smoketree

American smoketree asks for full sun and sharp drainage, and nothing else. A dry slope, a gravelly bank or thin soil over limestone suits it, and it is content in poor, alkaline ground. Wet or heavy soil is the one thing it will not stand. It is often multi-stemmed, so give it 15 feet from buildings and neighbors.

Plant dormant bare-root saplings in early spring. Dig a hole twice as wide as the roots and no deeper, set the root flare at grade, and backfill with the soil that came out. A two-inch mulch ring, kept off the stems, is enough. Seed has a hard coat and sprouts unevenly, so sow it in fall in a screened bed and wait a second spring.

Water weekly the first summer, then leave it alone; a smoketree in lean, dry soil colors better than a pampered one. Rabbits can chew young stems, so use a guard for two years. No fertilizer, and no pruning beyond removing dead wood.

Verticillium wilt is the one serious disease, so avoid ground where maples or other hosts have died of it. Fall color arrives in October.

## Sources

- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Cotinus obovatus](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=h660)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Cotinus obovatus](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/cotinus-obovatus/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: American smoke tree](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/american-smoke-tree/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Cotinus obovatus](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=coob2)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Cotinus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Cotinus.pdf)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: American smoketree, Cotinus obovatus](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=415)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Cotinus obovatus](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.153598/Cotinus_obovatus)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Cotinus obovatus](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cotinus/cotinus-obovatus/)
- [Oklahoma Native Plant Record, vol. 4 (2004): Hoagland, Cotinus obovatus Raf. (Smoke-tree) in Oklahoma](https://ojs.library.okstate.edu/osu/index.php/ONPR/article/download/80/67/301)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation Field Guide: American smoke tree](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/american-smoke-tree)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology, Eastern OLDLIST of maximum tree ages (Neil Pederson): Cotinus obovatus, American smoketree](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/olds/detail.cfm?genus=Cotinus&species=obovatus)
- [United States Patent and Trademark Office, Plant Patent PP19,035: Cotinus plant named 'Old Fashioned'](https://patents.google.com/patent/USPP19035P2/en)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for the Ozarks: Missouri, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-the-ozarks/index.html.md)
- [Small native trees and large shrubs for a small yard, and how to place them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-native-trees-for-small-yards/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Dwarf Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dwarf-hackberry/index.html.md), [Eastern Redbud](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/eastern-redbud/index.html.md), [Common Hoptree (Wafer Ash)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hoptree/index.html.md) and [Chokecherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/chokecherry/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [American Plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-plum/index.html.md), [Pagoda Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pagoda-dogwood/index.html.md), [Ozark Chinquapin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/ozark-chinquapin/index.html.md) and [Scrub Hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/scrub-hickory/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on American Smoketree, add ?species=american-smoketree with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=american-smoketree&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for American Smoketree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=american-smoketree): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=american-smoketree): whether American Smoketree can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for American Smoketree as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=american-smoketree (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how American Smoketree is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=american-smoketree (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what American Smoketree needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 5 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=american-smoketree:5
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant American Smoketree where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=american-smoketree&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far American Smoketree goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=american-smoketree&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months American Smoketree flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=american-smoketree