Types of Smoke Bush – Purple, Gold, or Native Tree

Choose smoke bush by foliage color first — purple, gold, or green — or pick the native American smoke tree if you want a larger specimen with intense fall color.

Choose purple, gold, or the native American tree first

Start with the leaf color you want, then check mature size on the tag. [1] [2] European smoke bush is the usual 10-to-15-foot shrub with showy plumes. The American smoke tree is a native specimen with smaller plumes and stronger fall color. [3] [4] All kinds share the same sun and drain. Site the one you choose on How to Grow Smoke Bush.

Browse by kind

Purple-leaf selections

Royal Purple is the usual purple-leaf selection — deep purple-black foliage through the growing season, then red-orange in fall. Velvet Cloak is similar in outline. Grace is a hybrid between Cotinus coggygria and Cotinus obovatus, so it grows larger than a straight coggygria cultivar; the leaf is reddish-purple and the fall color is outstanding. All purple-leaf kinds need full sun to keep color.

Gold-leaf selections

Golden Spirit (sold as Golden Spirit or ANCOT) has chartreuse to gold leaves in full sun and orange-red fall color.

Compact green-leaf

Young Lady is a compact green-leaf selection that starts flowering while it is still young, so you see plumes on a smaller plant.

Species plants

Cotinus coggygria is the European smoke bush — blue-green leaves, smoky pink plumes in summer, and yellow to red fall color. Cotinus obovatus, the American smoke tree, is native to limestone bluffs in the eastern United States. It grows larger than Cotinus coggygria and puts on some of the most intense orange-red fall color of any deciduous shrub. The plumes are smaller than on coggygria.

Read the mature size on the tag — Grace and the American smoke tree grow larger than a straight coggygria selection.