White sassafras

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White sassafras flowers

White sassafras habit

White sassafras fruit

White sassafras bark

White sassafras inflorescences

White sassafras leaf

White sassafras

White sassafras buds

White sassafras leaves

Morphology

Trunk

Erect; bark gray to reddish brown, furrows deep, ridges long, flat-topped; wood brownish orange, soft.

Twigs

Pale green with olive mottling, flexible, glabrous or pubescent; leaf scars crescent-shaped to more or less half-round; buds olive-green, ovoid, .04 to .3 inch, apex obtuse to acute, scales glabrous or pubescent.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .4 to 1.2 inch, pubescent; blade elliptic-ovate to obovate, 1,2 to 6 inches long, .3 to 3.6 inches wide, base tapered to cuneate, margins entire to 2-3-lobed, apex obtuse to acute, lower surface light green to yellowish green, glaucous, pubescent, especially along veins, upper surface green to dark green, sparsely pubescent, especially along midvein.

Flowers

Axillary from wood of previous year, racemes or racemose panicles, 4-10-flowered; floral bract 1; peduncle .4 to .8 inch; pedicels .2 to .3 inch, becoming red in fruit, club-shaped, fleshy.Unisexual, radially symmetric, fragrant; tepals 6, greenish yellow, connate basally, narrowly elliptic, .12 to .18 inch; staminate: stamens 9; pistillate: staminodes 6; pistil 1; style 1, .08 to .12 inch; stigma 1.

Fruit

September-October; drupes, bluish black, ovoid to obovoid, .28 to .43 inch long, .2 to .28 inch wide, glabrous, fleshy; stone 1, dark brown, ovoid to ellipsoid, granulate, 2-ridged.

Ecology

Habitat

Woodlands, edges of forests, old fields, pastures, fencerows, roadsides, often in rocky soil.

Distribution

Southeast corner of Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Sassafras albidum was an important medicinal, food, and fiber source for a number of Native American tribes in eastern North America. The dried and powdered leaves are used to make filé powder, a seasoning and thickening agent in Louisiana Creole cuisine.

Additional Notes