Scientific name: Sassafras albidum
Common name: Sassafras, Common Sassafras
Native: Yes
Native range: Native to the eastern and central United States [4].
Distribution in North America: Click to view the USDA Plants Database page for S. matsudana.
USDA Zones: 5-9 [6]
Maximum age: Lives to 100 years on average, but may live up to 500 years [7].
Ecology: The fruits are consumed by birds and small mammals. Bears, beavers, and deer consume the fruits, twigs, and bark [1,2,4]. It hosts a number of native moths and butterflies, including swallowtail butterflies (Papilio spp.), and the io moth (Automeris io) [8].
Ethnobotany: Indigenous Americans use the plant for a variety of medicinal purposes, as a fragrance in soaps, a flavoring in soups, a source of fiber for crafting, and a source of wood for building [1,2,5]. It was used as the base for rootbeer until 1960, when it was determined to have carcinogenic properties [3].
Eat the Planet: Sassafras, An Illegal Substance That Grows Wild In Our Back Yards
Eat the Weeds: Sassafras - Root Beer Rat Killer
Native American Ethnobotany Database: Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees
Sassafras Was Once The Base For Root Beer by Les Harrison for UF|IFAC
Why the Best Trees Aren’t Always the Biggest by Margaret Roach for The New York Times
[1] https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/
[2] https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/
[3] https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/washingtonco/
2018/08/10/sassafras-base-root-beer/
[4] https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/misc/
ag_654/volume_2/sassafras/albidum.htm
[5] http://naeb.brit.org/uses/species/3589/
[6] https://www.arborday.org/trees/
treeguide/TreeDetail.cfm?ItemID=917