Michigan Trees: A Handbook of the Native and Most Important Introduced Species

by Charles Herbert Otis

4. Staminate flowering branchlet, × 1/2.

5. Staminate flower, enlarged.

6. Pistillate flowering branchlet, × 1/2.

7. Pistillate flower, enlarged.

8. Fruit, × 1/2.

LAURACEAE

Sassafras

Sassafras variifolium (Salisb.) Ktse. [Sassafras sassafras (L.) Karst.] [Sassafras officinale Nees & Eberm.]

HABIT.—Usually a large shrub, but often a small tree 20-40 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 10-20 inches; stout, often contorted branches and a bushy spray form a flat, rather open crown.