Narrative

Smoke tree (Rhus cotinus to Cotinus coggygria) is found from southern Europe east to China. There are many named varieties to this popular ornamental. This is usually found as a shrub to about 15 feet tall.

This lifeform is frequentlhy domesticated.

This lifeform is found widely in Eurasia. This non-native lifeform is now locally established in North America..

Cotinus genus of trees is found in North America and Eurasia. There are three species with an orange-yellow wood. The leaves are simple and entire. There are two species growing in greater North America. (This name is also used for a genus of colorful beetles in the Scarab family.)

Cashew or Sumac Family (Anacardiaceae) contains about 800-900 species usually organized into seventy different genera. Included in this family are several poisonous plants like Poison Oak and Poison Sumac. Raw cashews are reportedly poisonous. There are 37 species arranged in 12 genera growing in greater North America.

Sapindales Order is a diverse group of mostly trees and shrubs.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.