Sassafras

Description

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum/Lauraceae) is composed of three species native to North America [1], China [1] and Taiwan [1]. Sassafras, a Native American word used by the Spanish and French in Florida in the mid 16th century, was first brought to England from the Virginia Colony by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587. In 1602 and 1603, several English ships were sent to the colonies to collect sassafras roots; these forays were known as the Great Sassafras Hunts. Other common names include; ague-tree, black ash, cinnamon wood, common sassafras, file-gumbo, gumbo-file, red sassafras, sasafras, sassafac, sassafrac, sassafras, sassafrasso, saxifrax, saxifrax tree, smelling-stick, wah-en-nah-kas, white sassafras.

Sassafras’ native range extends from Maine through Ontario, Michigan, Iowa, and Kansas, to Florida and Texas. The tree can reach a height of 90 ft (27 m) and a diameter of 5 ft (1.5 m). The shape of the leaves vary on the same tree, from simple (entire) to mitten-shape to tri-lobed. Greenish-yellow flowers appear in the spring and bright red, yellow, and orange foliage in the fall. Sassafras has thick, deeply furrowed, dark red-brown bark. Trees are either male or female, and the fruits are olive-shaped to spherical, with a dark skin and thin flesh. A pioneer species, Sassafras is the first to invade abandoned fields, spreading asexually by root runners to form small groves.

Sassafras heartwood, pale brown to orange brown, resembles ash or chestnut; with narrow yellowish-white sapwood. The wood has a spicy aromatic odor. Coarse-grained, straight, brittle and soft,sassafras is easily worked and takes a finish well. It glues well and holds screws better than nails. Sassafras is good for fence posts and the sills of houses, since it is very resistant to heartwood decay in exposed, damp conditions. It is used for lumber, furniture, posts, fence rails and posts, kindling, boxes, cooperage (slack), general millwork, small boats, oil from root bark, colonial dye (orange) from bark.