Because of its handsome foliage, attractive flowers and curious fruit, the papaw has been much used in ornamental planting.
SASSAFRAS Sassafras albidum Nees.
THE sassafras is an aromatic tree, usually not over 40 feet in height or a foot in diameter in Illinois. It is common throughout the State on dry soils as far north as La Salle County, and is one of the first broad-leaf trees to come up on abandoned fields, where the seeds are dropped by birds. Its range extends from Maine, southern Ontario to Iowa and south to Florida and west to Texas. In parts of its range it attains large size.
SASSAFRAS
Twig, one-half natural size. Leaf, one-third natural size.
The bark of the trunk is thick, red-brown and deeply furrowed and that of the twigs is bright green.
The leaves are very characteristic. It is one of the few trees having leaves of widely different shape on the same tree, or even on the same twig. Some are oval and entire, 4 to 6 inches long; others have one lobe, resembling the thumb on a mitten; while still others are divided at the outer end into 3 distinct lobes. The young leaves and twigs are quite mucilaginous.