Sassafras

Trees, deciduous. Bark red-brown, aromatic, thick, furrowed on old trunks. Leaves alternate, aromatic. Leaf blade pinnately veined, lobed or unlobed, basal veins more strongly developed than distal ones, papery; surfaces abaxially glaucous, glabrous or slightly pubescent; domatia absent. Inflorescences appearing before or with young leaves, situated in axils of bracts surrounding terminal buds, racemes or racemose panicles, flowers subtended by 1 linear bract. Flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate on different plants; tepals deciduous, yellowish, equal, pubescent. Staminate flowers: stamens 9, anthers 4-locular, 4-valved, introrse. Pistillate flowers: staminodes absent or present; ovary ovoid. Drupe blue, ovoid, seated in shallow, single-rimmed cupule.

Distribution

North America, Asia.

Discussion

Species 2 or 3 (1 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Sassafras albidum