smoke tree

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Either of two deciduous plants, Cotinus obovatus, a tree of the southern United States, or C. coggygria, a shrub of Eurasia, having plumelike clusters of small yellowish flowers.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A tree-like shrub, Rhus Cotinus, native in southern Europe, cultivated elsewhere for ornament. Most of the flowers are usually abortive, and the panicle develops into a light feathery or cloud-like bunch of a green or reddish color (whence the above name, also that of fringe-tree). The wood yields a valuable dye, the young fustic (which see, under fustic); the leaves are used for tanning (see scotino). Also called smoke-bush, smoke-plant, Venetian sumac, and Venus's-sumac.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) a shrub (Rhus Cotinus) in which the flowers are mostly abortive and the panicles transformed into tangles of plumose pedicels looking like wreaths of smoke.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of several shrubs or shrubby trees of the genus Cotinus
2. n. greyish-green shrub of desert regions of southwestern United States and Mexico having sparse foliage and terminal spikes of bluish violet flowers; locally important as source of a light-colored honey of excellent flavor