flavor root beer, candies, medicines, and tobacco. In the South, particu- 
larly Louisiana, dried and powdered pith from twigs and young leaves 
was the main ingredient in a thickener known as filé used in gumbos and 
soups. The fun of trying sassafras delicacies is spoiled, however, since 
they contain the cancer-causing compound safrole. Ironically, early 
settlers thought that sassafras tea prevented cancer and that preparations 
from the plant could cure the disease. For this and other attributed 
benefits sassafras swept European medicine as a fad shortly after the 
discovery of America. 
Sassafras ranges across much of eastern North America, including 
Missouri, as one of the few northern members of the Cinnamon Family. 
Sassafras albidum 
Other Missouri natives in this family are spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and 
the endangered species pondberry (Lindera melissifolia), both of which are 
in the English Woodland Garden. 
Sassafras bark looks as though it is stained with tea; the leaves are 
often mitten-shaped and show off with yellowish to purplish or reddish 
fall colors; the winter twigs are bright green tipped with green buds; the 
tiny yellow flowers, which appear early in spring before the leaves, have 
stamens that open by four trap-door flaps (rather than the two slits found 
in most other flowering plants); and the almost black fruits (on female 
trees) are set in a red chalice on a red stalk. Such combinations of red and 
black appear often on fruits and seeds as attractants to birds who disperse 
the seeds through their digestive systems. 
_The name Sassafras comes from the ancient Spanish name for the tree. 
Albidum refers in Latin to the whitish undersides of the leaves. 
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