Wine Making Equipment » Making Sassafras Wine

assafras albidum Family - Sassafras

The sassafras is distinctive from other trees in that there are three different types of leaves on the same tree. One is an oval shape, one sort of shaped like a hand in a mitten. The third is shaped like the hand in a mitten, with an extra thumb on the other side of the hand. The leaves will turn one of two colors in the fall, a burgundy red, or golden yellow, sometimes with both colors occurring on the same tree.

The bark on young trees will be green and smooth. The older the tree gets, the more furrowed the bark becomes and will start becoming more reddish brown in color. The tree will grow to about fifty feet tall, and approximately three feet in diameter. They grow fairly fas with a range of the entire eastern seaboard east of the Mississippi River and west to Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and eastern Texas.

The root is especially used to make sassafras tea, perfume and to add fragrance to soaps. It has a sort of root beer aroma. The branches of young trees are grazed upon by white tailed deer. The tree will usually form small groves and will usually be found growing with persimmon, flowering dogwood, paw paw, and sugar maple.

Sassafras is a colorful addition to the fall pallet of trees in the forest, the yellow and burgundy colors flashing in the autumn sun. The three distinctive leaf types make it easy to identify.

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