AMERICAN SMOKE TREE; CHITTAM WOOD; MIST TREE 

 (Cotinus Americanus, Nutt). 20 to 35 feet. Tall, round- 

 headed tree with slender, pendulous branches. Bark gray, with 

 thin, oblong plates on surface; branches purplish red. Wood 

 light, soft, coarse-grained, streaked orange-colored, with white 

 sapwood. Used for fencing. Sap yields yellow dye. Leaves 

 oval or obovate, simple, alternate, purple and silky when they 

 open, becoming smooth, shining, dark green above, pale 

 beneath, fuzzy on veins; 4 to 6 inches long, 2 to 3 inches 

 wide, wavy-margined, blunt at ends, strongly feather- veined. 

 Flowers April and May, minute, in loose, terminal panicles, 

 dioecious. Fruit scant in quantity; most of the flowers on 

 fertile trees do not produce seed-bearing drupes. Sterile 

 pedicels develop a feathery, plume-like system of bracts, that 

 cover the tree with a cloud of pink and umber shades. Dist. : 

 Sides of ravines and river banks, Tennessee to Oklahoma: 

 Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. 



The European Smoke Tree, or Venetian Sumach (Cotinus 

 Cotinus) is the more showy and common species seen in gar- 

 dens. This is a native of the Himalayas and northern China, 

 and so it exceeds our species in hardiness and vigor. 



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