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Common smoketree

Cotinus coggygria · Anacardiaceae

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 7 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Arizona above 3,000 feet / interior Southwest; British Columbia; Catalonia, Spain; Global; Greece; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Michigan / Great Lakes; OR/WA/ID; Ohio / Midwest; Pacific Northwest (Oregon / Washington / Idaho); Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; Yavapai County, Arizona; eastern US; eastern WA; southern Idaho / Intermountain
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

Typed publication scope: 11 scopes across 9 cited fire sources

Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database · Official scoped edition
- 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.
Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions) · Official scoped edition
- MD; partial normalized coverage · 2015-01-08
  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.
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · Official scoped edition
- MI; partial normalized coverage · 2007-01-01
  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.
Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
- OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01
  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.
Fire-Resistant Plants for Home Landscapes (PNW 590) · Official scoped edition
- ID, OR, WA; partial normalized coverage · 2023-10-01
  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.
FIREWISE Plant Materials for 3,000 ft. and Higher Elevations (AZ1289) · Official scoped edition
- 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 Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
- VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15
  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.
Fire-Resistant Plants for Eastern Washington · Official scoped edition
- 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.
Fire-Resistant and Fire-Prone Plants Common to Yavapai County (Bulletin 34) · Official scoped edition
- 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: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: 14 sourced range or established records; set a location to match them. 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: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

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.

Common smoketree (Cotinus coggygria) — Photo: (c) Pantazi Katerina, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
USDA hardiness: Applicable source statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each source
Grows in: CT, ID, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, OH +5
Rated in: Arizona above 3,000 feet / interior Southwest; British Columbia; Catalonia, Spain; Global +11
Family: Anacardiaceae
Evidence: 26 cited sources

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.

Current native

0

exact source areas

Current introduced

13

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

13 introduced source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

Connecticut (CT)
Illinois (IL)
Indiana (IN)
Massachusetts (MA)
Maryland (MD)
Michigan (MI)
New Jersey (NJ)
New York (NY)
Ohio (OH)
Oregon (OR)
Pennsylvania (PA)
Utah (UT)
Vermont (VT)

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.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector · record cotinus-coggygria · 2016-wayback · as of 2026-08-26

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.
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · record shrub:Cotinus coggygria · New, January 2007 · as of 2026-08-26

5–8 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Cotinus coggygria · exact match.

Source location: Table 1, shrub row.
Fire-Resistant Plants for Home Landscapes (PNW 590) · record trees:Common smoketree · 2023-10 · as of 2026-08-26

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)
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Deciduous Shrubs [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (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.

Avoids (2)

Guía de pirojardinería — guía práctica de jardinería adaptada a la prevención de incendios forestales — Diputació de Girona and Bombers de la Generalitat de Catalunya · 2020 Spanish edition · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: elvira-hernando-1989 + cooperem-tree

“DESACONSEJADA”

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.
Κανονισμός Πυροπροστασίας Ακινήτων εντός ή πλησίον δασικών εκτάσεων — Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy · FEK B 3475/2023 · original source Corroboration Regulation

“ΙΔΙΑΙΤΕΡΑ ΕΥΦΛΕΚΤΑ ΕΝΔΗΜΙΚΑ ΦΥΤΑ — Rhus cotinus”

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.

Mid-scale / conditional (1)

Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database — Idaho Firewise (BLM + College of Western Idaho + Idaho Botanical Garden) · original source Primary evidence Field program lineage: idaho-tree

“fire-resistance score 5 of 10” · score 5 (idaho-0-10)

Listed without a rating (12)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

12 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “time to flaming (s): 16.9” · score 16.9 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11365; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Romero2019-1; sampling july. 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.
- “maximum flame temperature (°C): 400.5” · score 400.5 (FLAMITS — maximum flame temperature (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 11372; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Romero2019-1; sampling july. 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.
- “flaming duration (s): 8.82” · score 8.82 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11379; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Romero2019-1; sampling july. 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.
- “flaming duration (s): 8.82” · score 8.82 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11380; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Romero2019-1; sampling july. 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.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 323.7” · score 323.7 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 11387; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Romero2019-1; sampling july. 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.
- “flammability value: 77” · score 77 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 11394; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Romero2019-1; sampling july. 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.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 5422.04” · score 5422.04 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  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.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 358.8” · score 358.8 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 16680; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Guney2022-1; sampling may and september 2017. 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.
- “time to flaming (s): 13.7” · score 13.7 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 16681; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Guney2022-1; sampling may and september 2017. 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.
- “flame height (cm): 46.7” · score 46.7 (FLAMITS — flame height (cm))
  
  FLAMITS record 16682; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Guney2022-1; sampling may and september 2017. 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.
- “burning duration (s): 12.3” · score 12.3 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 16683; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Guney2022-1; sampling may and september 2017. 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.
- “burnt biomass (%): 9.2” · score 9.2 (FLAMITS — burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 16684; Consumability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Guney2022-1; sampling may and september 2017. 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.

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Cotinus coggygria (Common smoketree). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/cotinus-coggygria/. Last verified 2026-08-23.