Sassafras

Sassafras albidum

Size: 1g & 3g Availability

Tree
Max size: 60’ tall x 40’ wide
Average size: 40′ tall x 30′ wide

Moist to Dry, Very Dry
Clay, Loam, Sand
Sun, Part Shade
No Salt Tolerance

AKA: Cinnamon Wood, Mitten Tree, White Sassafras

This deciduous tree has a red or yellow fall color. Female shrubs will get inconspicuous yellow blooms in mid-spring; male trees do not have any flowers. It fruits in the late summer with inedible red and blue berries. The plant has a pleasant fragrance. The fruit are eaten by birds. It is a larval food for spicebush butterfly(Papilio troilus), tiger swallow-tail(papilio glaucus), palamedes butterfly (Papilio palamedes).

It has been said about sassafras “Sassafras literally launched flotillas of ships to Florida, and made patrons and financiers in Europe incredibly wealthy…[in the same realm as] tobacco.” (Austin, Florida Ethnobotany). Root beer aficionados still refer to sassafras root as the superior root beer source. The root and/or bark is also useful for treating digestive issues, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, and constipation. The bark has a long history of official pharmacopoeia and formulary texts; however, it was banned by the Federal Department of Agriculture around 1990, supposedly due to the carcinogenic compound safrole. However, a cup of sassafrass tea has 1/13^th the carcinogens at a single serving of beer, and even less than many other commonly consumed foods and drinks.