Some spring flowers are showy, while others are subtle. Our tree of the week offers the latter kind; modest beauty. Sassafras (
Sassafras albidum) flowers are yellow, tiny and appear in small clusters. Their fragrance is faint, sweet, and pleasant. If your nose isn't very sensitive, you may be left wondering if they are scented at all.
There is only one sassafras in the arboretum collection. This lone individual is a remnant of a sassafras patch planted 30 years ago. In 1989, students in Professor Ed Leuck's Plant Systematics course collected several seedlings from Bienville Parish and planted them in the arboretum. Unfortunately, the arboretum's clay slopes, while providing excellent habitat for our hardwoods, are unsuitable for sassafras; it prefers a sandy loam. The past three decades have taken their toll. Although the seedlings struggled and grew into trees, their mortality has been high. In 2013, three individuals remained. Today we have only one. This tree is small, spindly, and clearly not-thriving, but we sure are happy to have it!
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| Clusters of flowers and fuzzy leaf buds punctuate spindly, bare branches of the arboretum's lone sassafras (Sassafras albidum). Against the blue sky, the flowers appear white, tinted yellow. |
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| Up-close, sassafras flowers are varying shades of yellow and light-green. |
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| These bright yellow flowers, along with all of the flowers on this tree, are male flowers. Sassafras trees are dioecious, and this tree happens to be a male. |
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| Cluster of male sassafras flowers |
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| Fuzzy, white hairs cover the flower stalks. |
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| The new leaves are fuzzy, too. |
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| Sassafras flowers are tiny! |
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| Open male flowers measure less than a quarter of an inch. |
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| Branchlets alternate along the green branch. |
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The arboretum's sassafras tree has a skinny, bent trunk with dark gray bark. Although the initial patch of sassafras was planted 30 years ago, the trunk we're looking at here is not that old. This is a resprout from the root system of a trunk that died.
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You can find leafy pictures of the arboretum's sassafras
here. Sassafras also has delightful fall color: check out
this post for evidence.
For more information about this species consult the following:
NC State Extension
U.S. Forest Service
Louisiana Plant Identification and Interactive Virtual Tours (LSU AgCenter)
