Tree of the Week: Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)

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!

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.

Up-close, sassafras flowers are varying shades of yellow and light-green. 

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.

Cluster of male sassafras flowers

Fuzzy, white hairs cover the flower stalks.

The new leaves are fuzzy, too.

Sassafras flowers are tiny!

Open male flowers measure less than a quarter of an inch.

Branchlets alternate along the green branch.

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.

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)

Tree of the Week: Collateral Damage

The death of our old, on-site native sweetgum brought great injury to one of its neighbors, a red bay (Persea borbonia). The sweetgum's topmost limb fell on the red bay, splitting the trunk in half for a length of several feet. Because a serious injury like this is impossible to treat and will inevitably lead to rot, it was necessary to remove most of the tree. In the photo above, the red bay trunk is pictured center-left.

In March 1994, Professor Ed Leuck collected this plant from Kisatchie National Forest, nurtured it in a container for two years, and then planted it in the ground on April 15, 1996. Later, Professor Leuck added a climbing hydrangea (Decumaria barbara), courtesy of Jack Price.

Even though most of the tree was removed, we are expecting it to sprout back. The climbing hydrangea is terribly healthy and will continue to climb.

Spice Bush (Lindera benzoin)

There are a few fruits on the spice bush (Lindera benzoin). If you can find these tiny red-orange drupes, take them, and grow your own spice bush. They are a nice plant to have in a butterfly garden.

Spice bush fruits are very small, measuring under a half inch in length.

Ripening spice bush fruit

Springtime Flowers

Tree of the Week: Red Bay (Persea borbonia)

The red bay (Persea borbonia) is a founding species for the arboretum; the arboretum has been home to multiple specimens since it began. Ed Leuck collected one individual from Bienville Parish and two from Kisatchie National Forest. Another tree was purchased from Woodlanders nursery (Aiken, S.C.). Well-suited to the local enviroment and having a prolific nature, volunteers abound every year from the four original trees. Most of these young trees are removed; some are allowed to stay; and yet others are collected and relocated.

The pictures below are of a single volunteer that was collected and cultivated for several years in the greenhouse. In the spring of 2003, it was finally transplanted back into the arboretum where it has become an established tree. Today you can find it in a large iris bed on the floodplain. Despite a noticeable crook in its trunk, the tree is doing well, so well that the irises are now struggling for light.

This red bay grows in the arboretum's floodplain. When we get a heavy rain, a lot of water passes through this area and it is slow to dry. Carpinus caroliniana is pictured in the background. A large on-site-native Pinus taeda is pictured behind and to the left of the C. caroliniana.

The swamp titi trees team up with the red bay to shade the wooden foot bridge that runs from the Fitness Center to the Student Union Building, providing much needed relief from the sun during the summer months.

This red bay leans westward, perhaps vying for more sun. Its competition includes Carpinus carolinana, Pinus taeda and Quercus alba. At a younger age, it was in competition with Cyrilla racemiflora.

The red bay is evergreen, which is bad news for the irises living under it.

Fruits of the red bay are ripening this time of year.

The dark blue drupes are numerous.

The top leaf surface is smooth and shiny. The leaves are narrow and have slightly wavy edges. A spicy aroma is released if you crush or crumple these leaves, making them a culinary substitute for the bay leaves you buy in the grocery store.

The drupe itself is black, concealed by the blue covering, which slips off if you squeeze it. The leaf is pale-green underneath and fuzzy to the touch.

The blue slip covering is green on the inside.

Reddish-gray furrowed bark of a tree that is approximately 20-years-old

You can find more pictures of the arboretum's red bays here.

For more information about this species consult the following:
University of Florida IFAS Extension 
United States Department of Agriculture
US Forest Service 
Louisiana Plant Identification and Interactive Virtual Tours

Persea borbonia

Developing fruits in late April.

 

The hard, round, blue-black fruits often persist through the winter.

 

Grey-brown bark of a young Persea borbonia.

 

Mature bark is brown and divided into broad, irregular scales.

 

Sassafras albidum

Lindera benzoin