LAURACEAE 
Sassafras 
Sassafras vartifolium (Salisb.) Ktze. [Sassafras sassafras (L.) 
Karst.| [Sassafras officinale’ Nees & Eberit.] 
HABIT.—Usually a large shrub, but often a small tree 20-40 
feet high, with a trunk diameter of 10-20 inches; stout, often 
contorted branches and a bushy spray form a flat, rather open 
crown. 
LEAVES.—Alternate, simple, 3-6 inches long, 2-4 inches 
broad; oval to oblong or obovate; entire or 1-3-lobed with deep, 
broad sinuses and finger-like lobes; thin; dull dark green above, 
paler beneath; petioles slender, about 1 inch long. 
FLOWERS.—May, with the leaves; dioecious; greenish yel- 
low; on slender pedicels, in loose, drooping, few-flowered race- 
mes 2 inches long; calyx deeply 6-lobed, yellow-green; corolla 0; 
stamens of staminate flower 9, in 3 rows, of pistillate flower 6, in 
1 row; ovary I-celled. 
FRUIT.—September-October; an oblong-globose, lustrous, 
dark blue berry, 36 inch long, surrounded at the base by the 
scarlet calyx, borne on club-shaped, bright red pedicels. 
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal buds % inch long, ovoid, 
acute, greenish, soft-pubescent, flower-bearing; lateral buds much 
smaller, sterile or leaf-bearing. Aromatic. 
BARK.—Twigs glabrous, lustrous, yellow-green,  spicy- 
aromatic, becoming red-brown and shallowly fissured when 2-3 
vears old; thick, dark red-brown and deeply and irregularly fis- 
sured into firm, flat ridges on old trunks. 
WOOD.—Soft, weak, brittle, coarse-grained, very durable in 
the soil, aromatic, dull orange-brown, with thin, light yellow 
sapwood. : 
DISTRIBUTION.—Southern portion of Lower Peninsula 
as far north as Grayling. 
HABITAT. —Prefers well-drained, stony or sandy soil; 
woods; abandoned fields; peaty swamps. 
NOTES.—Rapid of growth. Suckers freely. Difficult to 
transplant, Propagated easily from seed. 
— 139 — 
