Sassafras
Habit | tree
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Height: | ⇕ | 9 m"m" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 9. to 18 m"m" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 18. |
Width: | ⇔ | 7.6 m"m" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 7.6. to 12 m"m" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 12. |
Lifespan: | ⌛ | perennial |
Features: | ✓ | deciduous, fragrance |
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Sassafras is a genus of three[1][2] extant and one extinct[3] species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.[2]
Sassafras trees grow from 9.1 – 18 m tall and spreading 7.6 – 12 m[4] The trunk grows 70 – 150 cm in diameter, with many slender branches, and smooth, orange-brown bark. The branching is sympodial. The bark of the mature trunk is thick, red-brown, and deeply furrowed. The wood is light, hard and sometimes brittle. All parts of the plants are very fragrant. The species are unusual in having three distinct leaf patterns on the same plant, unlobed oval, bilobed (mitten-shaped), and trilobed (three pronged); rarely the leaves can be five-lobed.[5] They have smooth margins and grow 7–20 cm long by 5–10 cm broad. The young leaves and twigs are quite mucilaginous, and produce a citrus-like scent when crushed. The tiny, yellow flowers are five-petaled and bloom in the spring; they are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees. The fruit are blue-black, egg-shaped, 1 cm long, produced on long, red-stalked cups, and mature in late summer.[1] The largest Sassafras tree in the United States is located in Owensboro, Kentucky.[6][7]
ExpandRead about Sassafras in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Cultivation
Propagation
Pests and diseases
Species
- Sassafras albidum (Nuttall) Nees - Sassafras, White Sassafras, Red Sassafras or Silky Sassafras. Eastern North America, from southernmost Ontario, Canada through the eastern United States south to central Florida, and west to southern Iowa and eastern Texas.wp
- Sassafras tzumu (Hemsl.) Hemsl. - Chinese Sassafras or Tzumu. Central and southwestern China. It differs from S. albidum in the leaves being more frequently three-lobed,[8] the lobes having a tapered acuminate apex (not rounded to weakly acute).wp
- Sassafras randaiense (Hayata) Rehd. - Taiwan Sassafras. Taiwan.wp
Gallery
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 Flora of North America: Sassafras
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 Phylogeny and biogeography of Sassafras (Lauraceae) disjunct between eastern Asia and eastern North America, Plant Systematics and Evolution, volume 267, pages 191–203
- ↑ Template:Aut & Template:Aut 1987. "Middle Eocene Dicotyledonous Plants from Republic, Northeastern Washington". United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1597:13
- ↑ Dirr, Manual of woody landscape plants. Page 938.
- ↑ Noble Plant Image Gallery Sassafras (includes photo of five-lobed leaf)
- ↑ http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Horticulture/kytreewebsite/pdffiles/SASSAFRAprint.pdf
- ↑ The biggest sassafras, American Forests, May-June, 1994, Whit Bronaugh
- ↑ Arboretum Trompenburg: Sassafras tzumu photo
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Sassafras. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Sassafras QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)