Native Plants

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Thursday - June 03, 2010

From: Plainview, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Trees
Title: Will smoketrees (Cotinus sp.) grow in the Texas Panhandle region
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Will smoke trees grow in the Lubbock-Amarillo, Texas region of Texas?

ANSWER:

The USDA Plants Database does not show either the North American native, Cotinus obovatus (American smoketree), or the non-native, Cotinus coggygria (European smoketree), growing in or near the Panhandle of Texas. If you click on Texas on the map on the USDA Plants Database page for American smoketree, you will see that it occurs in a few counties in Central Texas on the Edwards Plateau. Our description for Cotinus obovatus (American smoketree) says that it occurs in the Ozark Mountains of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri as well as mountain areas further east. We would certainly discourage you from planting the non-native European smoketree and would be less than enthusiastic about establishing the American smoketree in the Lubbock area since it is out of its natural range, but unless there is an issue with your soil the American smoketree should grow there.

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Thursday - June 03, 2010

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