Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Common forest trees of North Carolina

items 58 of 80 items
  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-9718.jpg
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  • •#^<^Sj-s -e>-s^p«^-<s ^s>-m=>^^p- REES :-e>-sg&*<«!s~« SASSAFRAS (Sassafras officinale N. and E.) THE sassafras is a small, aromatic tree, usually not over 40 feet in height or a foot in diameter. It is common throughout the State on dry soils, except in the higher mountains, and is one of the first broad-leaf trees to come up on abandoned fields, where the seeds are dropped by birds. It is closely related to the camphor tree of Japan. The bark of SASSAFRAS Twig, one-half natural size. Leaf, one-third natural size. 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. The flowers are clustered, greenish yellow, and open with the first unfolding of the leaves. The male and female flowers are usually on different trees. The fruit is an oblong, dark blue or black, lustrous berry, containing one seed and surrounded at the base by what appears to be a small orange-red or scarlet cup at the end of a scarlet stalk. The wood is light, soft, weak, brittle, and durable in the soil; the heartwood is dull orange-brown. It is used for posts, rails, boat-building, cooperage and for ox-yokes. The bark of the roots yields the very aromatic oil of sassafras much used for flavoring candies and various commercial products. 56
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).