Twin Lakes, West Central Alberta, June 09

[Rodger Whitlock]

Out of interest, what exactly is it that you guys call Sassafras?

A shrub tree with the botanical name of Sassafras albidum. Imagine that! It's native to the eastern parts of the US & Canada. There may be one or two species in China as well.

It was traditionally used as a flavoring in "root beer", a soft drink, but 30-40 years ago, one of the principal compounds contributing to the flavor, safrole, was found to be carcinogenic. As a result the US Food & Drug Administration required the removal of safrole from the sassafras extract used to make root beer. Root beer has never tasted quite right ever since. I suspect most of the root beer made today is flavored artificially.

The leaves are quite variable in their shape, even on the same plant, and have beautiful fall color.

[Paul T]

Rodger,

Despite your "Imagine that"...... I wasn't being facetious.  There are plants called 'Sassafras' here in Aus as well, but they are not that genus.  I didn't realise that Sassafras itself was a genus, which was why I asked about what you guys were calling Sassafras.  For example, our "local" Sassafras down the coast from here is Doryphora sassafras, but I do not know whether there are other plants elsewhere in Australia that are known as Sassafras as well.  We also have a lot of towns/localities throughout various parts of the country that are called Sassafras.

[Hristo]

Hi Cohan,
Again fab scenery and flora, thanks for the journey.

[Rodger Whitlock]

Despite your "Imagine that"...... I wasn't being facetious.  There are plants called 'Sassafras' here in Aus as well, but they are not that genus.  I didn't realise that Sassafras itself was a genus, which was why I asked about what you guys were calling Sassafras.

I'm not absolutely certain, but the word "sassafras" may be derived from one of the many native Indian languages of eastern North America. "Tobacco" and "raccoon" are of that nature. Funny thing: most of those languages are extinct, yet a few words from them live on.

Sorry if I came across as overly sarcastic.

[Carlo]

Actually Sassafras descends from Spanish...it is the Spaniards who discovered the tree in the early 1500's.

[cohan]

chris--glad you enjoyed the little tiny trip ... i'm guessing you guys have one since you were missing a few days?
your face looks a little darker in your profile pic--must be that bulgarian sun
looking forward to checking out your ebay site...

rodger, paul, carlo et al--i actually dont know much about sassafras, either--just that it is araliaceae and we dont have it ..likely one of those european things that the settlers/colonisers looked for local relatives and analogs of everywhere they went, thus trailing the names about..
 the A nudicaulis is called wild sarsaparilla (also looks like a spanish word), and has also been used in root beer and tea