Sassafras Tree

Description:

The flowers (pictured here) of the sassafras tree are produced in loose, drooping, few-flowered racemes up to 5 cm long in early spring shortly before the leaves appear; they are yellow to greenish-yellow, with five or six tepals. It is usually dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees; male flowers have nine stamens, female flowers with six staminodes (aborted stamens) and a 2–3 mm style on a superior ovary.

Habitat:

It prefers rich, well-drained sandy loam with a pH of 6–7, but will grow in any loose, moist soil. Seedlings will tolerate shade, but saplings and older trees demand full sunlight for good growth; in forests it typically regenerates in gaps created by windblow. This one was photographed at the edge of a deciduous forest in the midlands of South Carolina.

Notes:

An essential oil, called sassafras oil, is distilled from the root bark or the fruit. It was used as a fragrance in perfumes and soaps, food (sassafras tea and candy flavoring) and for aromatherapy. The smell of sassafras oil is said to make an excellent repellent for mosquitoes and other insects, which makes it a nice garden plant. Acids can be extracted from bark for manufacturing perfumes. The essential oil was used as a pain killer as well as an antiseptic in dentistry. The pith is used in the U.S. to soothe eye inflammation and ease catarrh.