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European smoketree is consistently rated fire resistant across guidance from six regional authorities.
The agreement comes through several different rating systems. Ohio State’s extension service gives it L, the recommended side of its five-band flammability scale, while Virginia Cooperative Extension also assigns L on its three-band scale. The USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs give it Firewise 1, the best of four ratings. FireSmart BC also approves it as a fire-resistant plant.
These findings are landscape guidance rather than a single laboratory measurement. Some are expert judgments about relative flammability, while others are compiled recommendations that simply include or exclude a plant. Their scales therefore do not measure European smoketree in exactly the same way, but they all point in the same direction. The tree is also listed for USDA zones 4a through 8b, so the recommendations span several climates.
European smoketree is a member of the Anacardiaceae family and has been introduced in 13 states, including Connecticut, Illinois, and Indiana. For a homeowner choosing among landscape plants, its repeated placement in the preferred category makes fire resistance the well-supported conclusion.
Form
tree
Rated in
Arizona above 3,000 feet / interior Southwest; British Columbia; Catalonia, Spain; Global +11
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
NJ; partial normalized coverage
New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
The October 2023 joint Pacific Northwest Extension publication explicitly names Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and publishes more than 150 plant profiles. FireApproved has normalized 155 exact plant records from the source; publication scope does not assert that every listed plant suits every site within the three states.
Arizona at or above 3,000 feet (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-12-01
AZ1289 is explicitly limited to Arizona elevations of 3,000 feet and higher. FireApproved publishes 69 exact owners as regional Arizona context, retaining every water and elevation condition. It is never promoted to statewide low-desert guidance or an independent Tier 1 vote.
Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.
Eastern Washington (WA footprint); partial normalized coverage
Washington DNR publishes the guide for Eastern Washington and says it compiles plants from other Firewise documents that are likely to thrive there. FireApproved publishes 46 exact owners only as eastern Washington context. The rows are corroborative, not empirical or statewide.
Yavapai County (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2025-03-14
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension authors Bulletin 34 for Yavapai County. FireApproved publishes 198 exact source owners from its resistant and prone tables and keeps the county boundary visible. County publication scope is regional Arizona context, never statewide scope.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in CT, ID, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, UT, VT, WA.
Native range
Introduced / established
14 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
2 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Cotinus coggygria · exact match.
Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.
Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
4–8 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Cotinus coggygria · exact match.
Source location: Common smoketree profile, USDA hardiness zones field.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 3 — 10–30 ft from the structure; thin vegetation, remove debris, and minimize plant massing [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (with its recommendation)
FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ extended zone (30-100 m) [FireSmart BC Home Ignition Zone] (with its recommendation)
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 60' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (mid-scale rating)
Guía de pirojardinería: not suitable inside the 25-metre maximum-risk zone [girona-2020-iuf-25m-suitability] (with its avoid rating)
Fire-resistant plant profile galleries: Common smoketree — Cotinus coggygria [osu-2023-trees-gallery] (with its recommendation)
Κανονισμός Πυροπροστασίας Ακινήτων εντός ή πλησίον δασικώ…: section 5.4.2, Table 2δi [greece-2023-particularly-flammable] (with its avoid rating)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed as Smoke tree — Cotinus coggygria. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.
Listed as Cotinus coggygria (Smokebush). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Well adapted to many conditions
Cotinus coggygria is rated “DESACONSEJADA” by the guide's qualitative IUF garden-suitability method. The method assumes species-specific care and integrates fire evidence with fuel structure, maintenance, origin, invasiveness, and expert fire-service experience.
The regulation prints this taxon in its table of particularly flammable endemic trees and shrubs. Printed-name correction used for exact matching: Rhus cotinus -> Cotinus coggygria.
12 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Romero2019: Romero, B., Fernandez, C., Lecareux, C., Ormeño, E., & Ganteaume, A. (2019). How terpene content affects fuel flammability of wildlandurban interface vegetation. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 28, 614.
Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Romero2019-1; sampling july.
FLAMITS record 13722; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Wang2009-1; sampling november. Primary study Wang2009: Wang, X., Niu, S., & Kan, Z. (2009). Properties and flammability of major tree species in the Beijing area. Frontiers of Forestry in China, 4, 304-308.
Primary study Guney2022: Güney, C. O., Sar?, A., Cekim, H. O., Küçüksille, E. U., ?entürk, Ö., Gülsoy, S., & Özkan, K. (2022). An advanced approach for leaf flammability index estimation. International journal of wildland fire, 31, 277-290.
Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Guney2022-1; sampling may and september 2017.
