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.
I hope you get a chance soon to experience it. Sassafras has a magical aroma that locks into people's brains for a lifetime. (I might hit up an herb store for some roots while I wait for my tree to put up some suckers for me to harvest.)
Absolutely! Thank you! I checked out the possible purchase of a sassafras tree and I found a few online. I hope they are the same thing? I’m going to order one today.
Whoever sells it should be able to tell you if it's an Eastern U.S. Sassafras albidum. I learned years back to try to source new trees from as close to my climate as possible, so they're adapted species that will be more likely to survive. Our PawPaw experience, years ago, was frustrating using the bare root trees that we had shipped from further away. Finally gave up and used seeds from the same latitude as us, and that worked really well. Good luck!
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.
I think a whole bunch of the lauraceae tree family is hot with chemistry that is dose limiting. Those alkaloids are under study as anti-infectives, anti parasite, and/or anticancer. The U.S. sassafras is definitely more medicine and spice flavor, not food.
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! 🤗
I hope you get a chance soon to experience it. Sassafras has a magical aroma that locks into people's brains for a lifetime. (I might hit up an herb store for some roots while I wait for my tree to put up some suckers for me to harvest.)
Thank you! I’ll have to check out some roots!
Thanks for joining us
Absolutely! Thank you! I checked out the possible purchase of a sassafras tree and I found a few online. I hope they are the same thing? I’m going to order one today.
Whoever sells it should be able to tell you if it's an Eastern U.S. Sassafras albidum. I learned years back to try to source new trees from as close to my climate as possible, so they're adapted species that will be more likely to survive. Our PawPaw experience, years ago, was frustrating using the bare root trees that we had shipped from further away. Finally gave up and used seeds from the same latitude as us, and that worked really well. Good luck!
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.
I think a whole bunch of the lauraceae tree family is hot with chemistry that is dose limiting. Those alkaloids are under study as anti-infectives, anti parasite, and/or anticancer. The U.S. sassafras is definitely more medicine and spice flavor, not food.
Great deep dive into one of my favourites. The name alone is legendary. And I can’t get enough of the smell
Thank you! I had long been craving my own supply, and that little tree appeared as a literal gift from heaven.