‘Royal Purple’ is a compact, purple-leaved smokebush. Upright, loose-spreading, and multi-stemmed shrub covered in tiny yellowish flowers which open in 6-8″ long panicles in spring followed by billowy hairs of the spent flower clusters which turn a smoky pink to purplish pink in late spring covering the plant with fluffy, hazy, smoke-like clouds throughout summer. The deep maroon-purple foliage distinguishes ‘Royal Purple’. Cotinus is closely related to the sumacs (Rhus). ‘Royal Purple’ originated in Holland and was introduced into the U.S. in 1953.