Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees

Long before the arrival of Europeans in North America, Native Americans were using the leaves, roots, pith, and fruits of Sassafras albidum for pain relief, as an antiseptic and to treat syphilis (Leptuck 2003; Native American Ethnobotany Database 2024). Some indigenous peoples used sassafras twigs as chewing sticks as a tonic for dental pain. The stem pith has been used to thicken gumbo and is called filè. Its usefulness meant that S. albidum was one of the first North American plants introduced by indigenous people to European explorers, in 1528 (the Spanish in Florida) (Austin 2005) and 1535 (the French in Canada) (Launay 1953; McMullen 2007). Native Americans taught European colonists these uses which ignited a worldwide trade in S. albidum during the 16th to the 18th centuries (Magnaghi 1997; Griffin 2020). Sassafras was the first native American herb exported to Europe and for a short while rivalled tobacco and cocoa in volume shipped (Maydom 2018). So great was the European desire for sassafras that the English funded Sir Walter Raleigh’s doomed colony at Roanoke partly to secure a new source of the herb (McMullen 2007).

Sassafras albidum forms a medium to large tree with distinctive, variable foliage, the leaves appearing as simple and unlobed or mitten-like with two lobes, one lobe always central and larger than the other, or symmetrical with three lobes. The leaves develop bright gold and orange colours in the autumn which, together with their varying shapes, help to make sassafras an interesting ornamental. In good conditions the growth rate is quite fast, as much as 65 cm per year, and plants can form aggressive thickets from root sprouts in some locations. The bark has a spicy smell and taste and was once used in the manufacture of root beer and some commercial dental products, but this has been illegal in North America and Europe since the compound safrole was found to be carcinogenic.

It is somewhat useful to mammals who winter-browse the twigs and bark and to birds who eat the lipid-rich fruit in autumn (Sullivan 1993), and it is a host plant for Spicebush Swallowtail Papilio troilus butterflies. The wood is of limited commercial value as it is soft and brittle but can be used for small carpentry projects because it is aromatic and durable. Early toothbrushes were made from sassafras wood due to its aromatic properties. It was popular to make bed frames from the wood as the fragrance repelled bed bugs. Sassafras albidum also rates ‘good’ for use as firewood due to its oil content (Sullivan 1993).

Where it grows naturally, Sassafras is easily cultivated and can be long-lived, despite its ecological function as an early coloniser. It prefers moist, rich, well-drained acidic soils and will often become chlorotic in alkaline sites. Field grown plants can be difficult to transplant and should only be dug and moved in early spring. Root suckers will often need to be removed regularly from these plants. Sassafras is easier and more forgiving if container grown and will transplant easier at other times of the year. In all cases, newly installed plants should be kept watered until well established.

Beyond its native range it has been cultivated in Europe since at least the 1630s (Bean 1981), initially for its many uses and latterly as an ornamental. It succeeds well in much of mainland northern Europe but its usefulness in the UK and Ireland is somewhat tempered by the oceanic climate. Here, the best specimens are those in the warmer, sunnier southeast of England, including a superb stand within the Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park which includes the tallest British examples, now just shy of 20 m in 2021 (The Tree Register 2024), but there can be little doubt that this is a tree that will benefit from a warming climate in northern Europe in particular.

There are very few named cultivars of Sassafras albidum, probably as a result of their inherent variability, tendency to sucker and otherwise revert. A variegated sport has recently been named but is not yet in commerce and may prove too unstable for the trade (see below). The Dawes Arboretum has also been propagating a variegated selection with ‘quite striking’ patterns in its foliage, but despite several attempts to stabilise it no propagules from the original plant have survived to date (G. Payton pers. comm. to MW August 2022).