| General Description | This cultivar has brilliant green foliage which it retains for a majority of the summer. It has a flattened almost perfectly rounded leaf with a long petiole giving one the impression of many green lollipops. |
| ID Characteristic | Of the Smokebush cultivars, Ancot, has rich, yellow to lime green foliage that is a rounded, flattened leaf with a long petiole. When crushed, the leaf gives off a lemon-lime scent. |
| Shape | Broad, upright, dense, bushy. |
| Landscape | It is effective in shrub borders, massing or even as a focal point. It works well as an accent to evergreens and perennials because of it's vibrant three season colour. Ideally planted in sunny areas to establish the brilliant bright green - lime foliage, its vibrancy is easily maintained with an annual pruning or coppicing. |
| Propagation | Ancot is propagated by tissue culture or by cuttings. Softwood cuttings should be taken from late April to June and treated with 1000ppm IBA, set in peat and perlite with vigorous over misting. It may take 12 weeks for a cutting to develop roots. Propagation is prohibited without a license.
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| Cultivation | Thrives in moist, fertile, well-drained soils. Tolerant of alkaline soils and will also succeed in clay as well as dry, rocky soils. Full sun or light shade with adequate moisture it will keep its brilliant green through the summer and will prevent burn in full sun. Coppicing down to 5-10 cm in early spring will produce fresh, new growth at the cost of flowering, however the blooms are insignificant when compared to the foliage. |
| Pests | None serious. Verticillium wilt may be an occasional problem as well as leaf spot and rust. |
| Habitat | Horticultural origin. |
| Bark/Stem Description | Glossy, glabrous, light grey-brown or purplish-brown marked with small lenticels. The bark becomes scaly and darker with age. Stems have an orange-brown pith and emit an odour when crushed. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | Small, 1.5 mm in length, globose, with several red-brown, acute scales. |
| Leaf Description | The leaf is simple, entire and oval to rounded, 3-8.5 cm long and almost as wide. It has a rounded base, obtuse to truncate apex and is glabrous in texture. Leaves have parallel venation with a prominent mid-rib and secondary veins branching off of it. |
| Flower Description | Generally, small, cream to yellow flowers form into puffs with purplish hairs on the 15-20 mm peduncles and pedicels in late spring or early summer. This 'smoke effect' is created by these large, loose clusters of fading flowers which form the light pinkish stalks throughout the summer.
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| Fruit Description | Not significant, very small, 2-3 mm, a dry, net-like, drupe. |
| Colour Description | The foliage is lime green, with a slight red tint in the spring, changing to gold in the summer and then corals, reds and oranges in the autumn. Creamy to yellow flower blooms are evident in early to mid-spring with smokey pinkish-white plumes following the cessation of blooms. The bark is light grey-brown to purplish and has a slight bloom on the newer growth. |
| Texture Description | It is a medium textured plant throughout the growing seasons but becomes course in winter. |
