Sassafrass or not???

jofus

I have what I think is a large sassafrass (Sassafras albidum), but some things do not fit. I am not extremely familiar with them, especially extremely large specimens. Here is some background.

I bought a home in Sheffield, AL 3 years ago. When I moved in 2 large trees had been severely topped in the backyard. A large Hackberry that had split in a storm and What I think is a Sassafrass. I had the Hackberry removed, however I held on to the other until I got a few more trees established to fill the void.

This tree probably stood 70+ feet tall before it was beheaded and Neutered by a frantic storm panicked homeowner. It Now stands about 40 feet tall, with 5 large 16-20" heading cuts, that have since gotten decayed to the point I have to take action and remove tree before it takes out my service and or falls on the corner of the house.

Everything about this tree says it is a Sassafrass, except the leaves lack any mitten shapes amongst all the leaves. They are all very elliptical, and I have not seen the presence of any fruit in 3 years. The bark is dead on, I am at a loss. Do Sassafrass, when they get very large and have been severely Topped, maybe tend to have their leaves lose the mitten shapes? Since the tree was severely topped, would it cause the tree to not fruit, especially since it is mature? Fall color the aromatic smell of twigs/leaves all say Sassafrass.

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Eric Frei

Seems they can have a few leaf types. Check out this sites descriptions of the leaf, smell etc.

Spice Pages: Gumbo file' (Sassafras albidum, Filè, Filé)

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rbtree

That's not quite like the sassafras that I've worked on. Each leaf in a cluster has slightly different shapes, as Ekka's link showed. Bark is furrowed less, and when chipped off, is orange inside, as yours also seems to be. Wood is very colorful. Upper canopy is much more open, but have not been topped. Any aroma to the foliage?

They're not native here in the NW US, but I have one customer with a stand of them. Every few years one dies. Just removed a 60 foot, 16 incher.

stargazer

Dig up some smaller roots and scratch the bark on them. Sassafras has a very strong and unmistakable aromatic "root beer" smell. If it has the smell, there will be no doubt.