Smoke Tree: A Highway Delight | Red Bluff Garden Club
My fellow authors might disagree, but it seems like sometimes it’s hard to come up with a suitable topic. This time, however, I felt good – I had two or three plants that were lined up, with reasonable photos for each one. That changed the other day as we were driving south, back from Redding on I-5. There were the smoke trees, more eye-catching than ever before, especially looking west while passing over Cottonwood Creek. (There’s a hint. Take that trip as soon as you can, during the day, of course.) I knew I had my plant. In my opinion, the smoke tree (Cotinus coggygria or C. obovatus) is truly one of the great highway plants of Northern California, along with western Redbud and Fremontia. I’m listing both species because after doing my research, I wasn’t sure which one we saw along the highway. The first species is Eurasian, whereas the second is native to North America. The picture I took is of a bus station in Red Bluff. The Plant finder app identified it as C. coggygria. I would love to see what the