Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)

The Common Sassafras is a beautiful small to medium tree of the Laurel Family. It grows in open woods or woodland edges or in open fields in upland sites from New England down to central Florida over into eastern Texas & Oklahoma, most of Missouri, through central Illinois, through all Indiana up into most of lower Michigan into the southern tip of Ontario. It grows about 1.5 to 2 feet/year and lives up to about 100 years. It develops a taproot and coarse lateral roots, so it is not easy to transplant. I did transplant a few young trees about 3 feet high volunteering for Tyler Arboretum one early spring, carefully making nice rounded soil balls. Sometimes Sassafras can develop a colony from ground suckers, but many times it does not. It gets bright red fall color in full sun, but can turn yellow or orange in some shade. A few larger, diverse nurseries sell some and some native plant nurseries sell some for naturalistic landscapes. I don't see it planted by homeowners hardly at all, though there are two planted in a yard a few blocks away from me. Some landscape designers use it in professional landscapes or in parks. I think it should be planted in landscapes more often.

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The sassafras tree is a native of eastern North America. It's an aromatic deciduous tree growing to around 40 feet. It has a rough gray bark; its bright green alternate leaves are oval with one to three lobes. It flowers around May, greenish yellow flowers that appear before the leaves. They are followed by pea sized fruits.

Historically it was used by Native Americans for a wide range of ailments; the bark of its roots was used in various ways to treat fevers and rheumatism; as a tonic it was thought to cleanse the blood of impurities. An oil extracted from the tree was in use as an antiseptic in dentistry and as a flavoring in toothpastes, root beer, and early in the 1870's sassafrass and licorice were used by Thomas Adams as flavoring for Adams chewing gum. It continued to be used as flavoring until the 1960's when the Food and Drug Administration declared that safrole, a chemical compound in the oil of the root bark, was a carcinogen.

In the '90's safrole was removed from the oil and the FDA allowed it to again be used for flavoring. However, it is not recommended as a home remedy.

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Sassafras are most often seen as an understory shrub beneath larger trees such as Virginia Pine, Eastern White Pine, Sweetgum, Yellow Poplar, or oaks. They often grow alongside Black Cherry, American Beech, American Hornbeam, Eastern Red Cedar, as well as others.

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