In Fall, the irregular foliage of poison ivy assumes brilliant hues of orange - magenta - red, so that’s what jumped into mind when gazing upon the first sassafras tree spotted at weedom. A close inspection revealed that there were 3 different shaped leaves on this mini tree, which stood about 18 inches tall. It had trilobed leaves, mitten shaped leaves, as well as more normally oval shaped leaves. Jackpot! Sassafras! Our coolest new tree, historically famous as the source of root beer flavor, began life as a weed. We hypothesized that a seed had been bombed by a bird next to our greenhouse.
Thanks for this! Australia only has sassafras lookalikes of the Cinnamon family and related genera (Atherosperma & Doryphora). The fragrant bark of our sassafras lookalikes was of interest to the early botanists here, also containing appreciable quantities of safrole (70%), but also camphor and some unique (toxic!) alkaloids like atherospermine, berbamine and doryphorine.
How amazing! A bird must have planted your tree! I've learned a lot tonight about the Sassafras! I wish I could smell it. Thank you for the post! 🤗
Thanks for this! Australia only has sassafras lookalikes of the Cinnamon family and related genera (Atherosperma & Doryphora). The fragrant bark of our sassafras lookalikes was of interest to the early botanists here, also containing appreciable quantities of safrole (70%), but also camphor and some unique (toxic!) alkaloids like atherospermine, berbamine and doryphorine.
Great deep dive into one of my favourites. The name alone is legendary. And I can’t get enough of the smell