Sassafras, or Sassafras albidum, is native to eastern North America and eastern Asia, and is usually found as a shrub or small tree on the Inner Harbour campus. Leaves are three to five inches long and are unusual in having three distinctive leaf patterns, often on the same plant: three-lobed, mitten-shaped, and simple (no lobes). In autumn, they turn shades of yellow tinged with red. Bark of mature trees is thick, mahogany-brown, and is deeply furrowed. This tree is most often found as undergrowth beneath larger trees, being tolerant of shade, but it does best in sunlight. It most often grows 30 to 50 feet tall, but can get as large as 100 feet. Sassafras reproduces by root sprouts which can produce thickets. It also reproduces by seeds, 
the result of male flowers on male plants pollinating female flowers on female plants. Small flowers are produced in March or April. From the female flowers come small fruit with seeds that are scattered by birds when they ripen in September or October.
All parts of Sassafras including stems, leaves, bark, wood, roots, fruit, and flowers are aromatic and spicy, and have been used for human purposes. American Indians used sassafras as a herbal remedy and to make dugout canoes. Early toothbrushes were crafted from sassafras twigs or wood because of its aromatic properties. Settlers made it into furniture. The aromatic oil in 
sassafras has been used as a fragrance in soaps and perfumes. A spicy herb named file’ was made from the dried and ground leaves of the sassafras tree by the Choctaw Indians in the Southern United States. This led to the development of gumbo, a signature dish of the Louisiana Creole cuisine. Sassafras roots were used to make root beer until banned by the FDA in 1960 when laboratory animals given sassafras tea and sassafras oil developed permanent liver damage and various types of cancer. Safrole was found to the the offending agent, but even when it was removed there remained health concerns.
Sassafras has much less importance now than in 
the past due to health concerns, but devotees still enjoy occasionally digging and boiling sassafras roots to make sassafras tea.
A disease threatening the sassafras is laurel wilt. Laurel wilt is caused by a fungus introduced by ambrosia beetles. These beetles were recently introduced through importation of infected wood, such as crates and pallets, and they are expected to quickly spread through the eastern United States eliminating sassafras trees where it goes. They drill holes in the wood and introduce the deadly fungus. The fungus disrupts the transportation of water and nutrients through the tree, killing it. The ambrosia beetles live off the fungus it introduces, in a symbiotic relationship. It is yet to be seen if the native sassafras tree will survive this attack.
If interested, try to find the sassafras tree in my southern magnolia post, almost hidden in the lower right of the last tree pictured. Being obscured by larger trees is a usual situation for this tree.
