1. Guides
  2. New York City EcoFlora Volunteer Guide
  3. Sassafras

Sassafras

Sassafras albidum

Description 4

Lauraceae | sassafras

Habitat: Woods and thickets.

Leaves: Elliptic to ovate, to 6" or more long and 4" across, untoothed but sometimes with a lobe on one or both sides, bright green above, blue-green and smooth beneath, turning yellow to orange or purple in autumn, aromatic.

Bark: Red-brown, thick, furrowed, aromatic.

Flowers: Males and females very small, yellow or greenish yellow, without petals, in small clusters or short racemes on separate plants in spring.

Fruit: An egg-shaped deep blue berry, 3/4" long.

Note: Leaves aromatic - fruity pebbles scent.

Coombes, A. J. (1992). Trees. New York: Dorling Kindersley.

At the Garden 5

Sassafras can be found in the Thain Family Forest and around Twin Lakes.

Ecology 6

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. Growth is rapid, particularly with root sprouts, which can reach 1.2 m (4 feet) in the first year and 4.5 m (15 feet)in 4 years. Root sprouts often result in dense thickets, and a single tree, if allowed to spread unrestrained, will soon be surrounded by a sizable clonal colony, as its stoloniferous roots extend in every direction and send up multitudes of shoots.

Description 6

Sassafras albidum is a medium-sized deciduoustree growing to 15–20 m (49–66 ft) tall, with a canopy up to 12 m (39 ft) wide, with a trunk up to 60 cm (24 in) in diameter, and a crown with many slender sympodial branches. The bark on trunk of mature trees is thick, dark red-brown, and deeply furrowed. The shoots are bright yellow green at first with mucilaginous bark, turning reddish brown, and in two or three years begin to show shallow fissures. The leaves are alternate, green to yellow-green, ovate or obovate, 10–16 cm (4-6.4 inches) long and 5–10 cm (2-4 inches) broad with a short, slender, slightly grooved petiole. They come in three different shapes, all of which can be on the same branch; three-lobed leaves, unlobed elliptical leaves, and two-lobed leaves; rarely, there can be more than three lobes. In fall, they turn to shades of yellow, tinged with red. The flowers are produced in loose, drooping, few-flowered racemes up to 5 cm (2.0 in) 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. Pollination is by insects. The fruit is a dark blue-black drupe 1 cm (0.39 in) long containing a single seed, borne on a red fleshy club-shaped pedicel 2 cm (0.79 in) long; it is ripe in late summer, with the seeds dispersed by birds. The cotyledons are thick and fleshy. All parts of the plant are aromatic and spicy. The roots are thick and fleshy, and frequently produce root sprouts which can develop into new trees.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Vail Ryan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Vail Ryan
  2. (c) bethanykier, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
  3. (c) Katja Schulz, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/treegrow/30572328980/
  4. (c) floracliff, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/233682
  5. (c) bkmertz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
  6. Adapted by bkmertz from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassafras_albidum

More Info

iNat Map

Member of the iNaturalist Network   |   Powered by iNaturalist open source software |   Documentation for developers