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.
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+1⁄4–3+1⁄4 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 (1⁄4–3⁄8 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 1⁄16–1⁄8 in) drupaceous fruit that develop.
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]
