Sassafras Albidum (nutt.) Nees

Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees

Lauraceae -- Laurel family

Description:

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum), is a deciduous tree, also known as, White sassafras, Sassafras root, ague tree, root beer tree, saxifras, is a small to medium-sized, moderately fast growing, aromatic tree with three distinctive leaf shapes: entire, mitten shaped, and three lobed, from yellow to red in autumn. Bark is a dark brown to red and deeply fissured. Flowering small yellow-green, usually appear during leaf-out. In the fall, blue drupes fruits will appear. (floridata)

Habitat & Range:

The native Sassafras is a common tree that is found primarily ranges from southern Maine and southern Ontario west to Iowa, and south to central Florida and eastern Texas, in North America. There is some evidence that its range is expanding northward. Habitats include open woodlands and sandy woodlands, thinly wooded bluffs, typical savannas and sandy savannas, woodland borders, typical thickets and sandy thickets, stabilized sand dunes with woody vegetation, rocky glades, fence rows, powerline clearances in wooded areas, and abandoned fields. Sassafras is a pioneer tree that spreads to semi-open areas with reduced competition. In wooded areas, it

benefits from wind-storms and ice-storms that knock over large canopy trees. (wikipedia)

Food for Wildlife:

The blue drupes that produce in the early fall months is a food for such birds as the mockingbird, wild turkeys, bobwhite quails, flycatchers, woodpeckers, warblers, phoebes and different kinds of woodpeckers. They play an important role in seed dispersal. Mammals, such as the white-tailed deer, will browse on the leaves and twigs and beavers, black bears