Sassafras (Spanish)
sassafras officinale L.
sassafras albidum
Laurel family

AKAs
Ague tree
Cinnamon wood
Saloip
Saxifrax

Parts Usually Used
Bark of the root

Description of Plant and Culture
Sassafras officinale is a small tree
with green twigs and large
simple or lobed leaves.

Leaves have spicy odor when crushed.
Yellow flowers appear on twigs
before leaves and are followed
by dark, shiny blue berries.
In places it is grown as an ornamental.

The stem of sassafras albidum,
which is usually 10 to 40 feet high
but sometimes reaches 125 feet,
is covered with rough, grayish bark.

The leaves alternate,
downy on the lower side, and variable
in shape from ovate to elliptic,
entire or three-lobed.

The small, yellowish-green flowers
grow in racemes, blooming
before the leaves appear.

The fruit is pea-sized,
yellowish-green drupe,
turns blue-black with 1 seed.

Where Found
Sassafras is a native North American
deciduous tree which can be found
in woods from Ontario to Michigan,
and south to Florida and Texas
to east Kansas.
Grows in poor soils.

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