Spring's Tonic Tree

Kay Broome

Crocuses (photo: Alex Scobe)

Normally, winter is my season to get rid of excess junk and do the boring but necessary tasks I don’t have time for during the rest of the year. But this winter was different. I’ve been lazy and tired, feeling low in energy and a general malaise. Perhaps because winter came late this year and stubbornly refused to leave; or maybe it’s just the general state of the world right now. Or it could simply be me getting old or all the above factors. Perhaps now is as good a time as any to dedicate this Beltane issue of the blog to Sassafras – an eccentric tree known for its lively, tonic vigor.

Sassafras trees –upright and fallen, High Park, Toronto (photo: Kay Broome)

Springtime is the year’s adolescence – all life moving gradually from March’s tentative greys and ochres, through April’s bashful pastels and moody rain showers, and finally into May’s sudden splendour. In spring’s frenzy, all things must procreate. Trees, plants and animals show themselves at their best in order to achieve pollination or to attract a mate. Stags sprout their antlers in concert with the crocuses. Song birds returning from southern climes waste no time in seeking out a mate, so that they can begin the arduous work of nesting and raising chicks.

Robin's Nest in Spring (photo: Dean Ward)     

Broad leaved trees will start to blossom in May, their leaves later adorned with butterfly and moth eggs. These will eventually hatch into caterpillars who, like the gawky adolescents they are, will gorge themselves on the leaves to later mutate into their fabulous adult forms.

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar (photo: Ryan Hagerty)

The Scent of Spring

One plant favoured by caterpillars is the sassafras.  This unique small to medium tree thrives in the understory of the Carolinian forest, where it basks in the company of more sedate species such as oak, elm and ash. Even before its peculiar leaves arrive, sassafras makes us aware of its quaintness. In early spring, a sassafras thicket, much like those of birch or sugar maple, sweetens the air with an invigorating, spicy scent. This is due to the aromatic oils in the sap, which in past times was used in a tea and to flavour root beer.

Sassafras Grove in HIgh Park, April 2025 (photo: Kay Broome)

Sassafras usually has a single trunk, but it can sucker, or form many branches from the base of the tree, especially if the trunk or roots are damaged. The furrowed bark is light grey or brown on the surface and often bright orange underneath. Young twigs are frequently bright green to yellow orange in colour. Both trunk and branches are slender and frequently curvy, as if galvanized by the tree’s invigorating sap. The lumber has a pleasantly elegant grain and an aromatic smell that can last for days. The fresh wood mutates from pale greenish blond to a rich brown colour.

Sassafras Tree Canopy, High Park (Photo: Kay Broome)

Sassafras is most noted for its varied leaf shape. In its simplest form, it can be a plain untoothed oval, like that of cherry.  But more frequently, sassafras leaves display one large lobe with a smaller one to the side, hence the alternate name “mitten tree”. Alternatively, the leaves will form a small lobe on either side of the main one, somewhat like a bird or dinosaur foot. It is not known why the leaves are so unique. But this is a medium sized woodland tree that prefers partial shade, and its canopy is layered, due partly to the corkscrewing of the branches. Perhaps the splayed leaf lobes and curvy limbs are the tree’s method of stealing sunlight from the overreach of larger species.

Sassafras Leaves showing lobes (photo: Kay Broome)

Unlike monoecious trees that have both male and female flowers, sassafras is dioecious – each individual tree is male or female only. The latter have very interesting fruit – a single blue or black berry sitting upright on a coral red stem, often hidden by the layered leaves. These berries are inedible for humans, but many bird species and mammals such as foxes and squirrels gladly eat them. Interestingly, as sassafras gets older, it becomes more sedate and conservative, just as many humans do. At that point, the leaves tend to manifest only the simpler oval shape. In Canada, the tree grows to about 30 ft or 10 m in height, but in the warmer American states, it can easily reach twice this size.  Sassafras is susceptible to harsh winters and strong winds, thus shunning the northern boreal forests.

The Butterfly Tree

Sassafras is a member of the laurel family, which includes such food plants as cinnamon, bay laurel and avocado. Its closest cousin however, is the spicebush (Lindera benzoin) which is smaller and has uniform oval leaves. However, spicebush’s yellow flowers are showier than those of sassafras and the berries turn bright orange and then red. Like sassafras, spicebush also displays brilliant fall colours. As its name suggests, the shrub has a pleasant, spicy scent. Spicebush does grow as far north as Toronto, but to my chagrin, I haven’t yet spotted any. The north American sassafras, S. albidum (meaning white) is also called red or silky sassafras. This tree attracts the caterpillars of swallowtail butterflies such as tiger and spicebush, and giant moths such as the Cecropia and Promethea.

Swallowtail Butterflies: Spicebush, left (photo:  Greg Hume)    Canada Swallowtail, right (photo:  Mdf)

Sassafras is yet another North American tree with close relatives in Asia but not Europe. This is due to the most recent Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. This event destroyed many plant species when glaciers covered much of Europe, but not Asia. Sassafras Tzumu is native to China and has bright yellow flowers, similar to our sassafras. Tsumu’s leaves also tend to be lobed and changeable, but not to the same extent as Albidum. They more closely resemble the leaves of the Amur maple. The other species S. Randaiense is endangered and limited to the island of Taiwan. Its leaves are similar to those of Albidum but the flowers resemble those of Tzumu.

S. albidum grows in the oak/hickory forests of the eastern United States and forays well into the southern states including Florida and Texas. To the north, in Canada, the tree thrives in the Carolinian forest of southern Ontario, being fairly common to Toronto’s oak forest, and to Hamilton and its surrounding area. Sassafras enjoys the company of larger, more sober trees such as elms, oaks, ashes and pines. Interestingly, the chemical in the tree’s roots inhibits the growth of elms and other larger trees, perhaps in an attempt to help the sassafras hold its own among these staid giants of the forest. It is the only sizable tree in North America  to give sugar maple’s multi-coloured fall display a run for its money.

An American Sassafras in the Fall (photo: Famartin)

The Trickster

Many pre-Christian pantheons found it necessary to have a deity who represented among other things, foolishness, recklessness and deviousness. However, this (usually male) god frequently defied repressive authority and punished corruption. He was perhaps a useful tool in educating children toward adulthood. Youngsters are often foolhardy; they take chances, make mistakes. However, wrong choices are often the quickest and most conclusive way of learning life’s hard lessons. Tales of the Trickster were enlightening examples for children to study the ways of upright behaviour, as well as survival skills.

Loki Finds Gullveig's Heart (Illust., John Bauer, 1911)

Trickster could often be cruel and capricious. The Norse Loki, who also governed fire, assisted the Norse gods in their struggles against the giants. Odin Allfather adopted Loki as his son and Thor became his friend. But Loki also tricked the blind god Hodir into inadvertently killing his brother Baldur, the god of light and goodness.  Loki later turned against the gods, siding with their enemies, the giants. He was a decisive factor in causing the Ragnarok, the end of the mythic Norse world of that time. Hermes of the Greek pantheon had less malice and more loyalty, but was dodgy nonetheless. He often pulled tricks on the other gods, such as stealing the cattle of Apollo, and among other things, was the patron of thieves and con men. Like various other trickster gods, Hermes was also a psychopomps – a conveyor of souls to the underworld.  My Lammas blog of 2024 discusses Hermes, Eleggua and other messenger gods regarding this aspect.

Manannán rescues Lugh (Illust., Maud Gonne, 1909)

Among the Irish Celts, Manannán Mac Lir, son of the sea, was a wise god. But much like the sea, he was capricious and uncontrollable. He appears not to have been as cruel as tricksters from other mythologies. However it was best not to push your luck with Manannán, as is shown in the tale in which this clever god pays a visit to the King of Leinster. Acting the buffoon at the king's court, he behaves inappropriately and refuses hospitality.  When Manannán insults the king’s musicians, the enraged warriors of Leinster try to assault him but miraculously end up assailing each other.  The king then orders Manannán hanged until dead, but when he inspects the gallows the following morning, the king finds his best fighter hanging there lifeless instead. Manannán standing next to him, coyly asks him why has he killed his own good warrior.  These events are repeated with the king's other top fighters until he loses all his best men. Finally the king has had enough and Manannán good naturedly and magically restores all the dead warriors to life and health. There is much in this tale about harsh authority being revealed and chastised, with the unexpected result of redemption achieved via humility and prudence.

Trickster Spirit Canoe, sculpture by Hib Sabin (photo from Stonington Gallery, Seattle, WA)

The trickster god was very prevalent among the First Nations of North America. Among the central, western and southwestern tribes, Trickster usually took the form of a Coyote and was named thus. To more northerly people such as the Ojibway, he was the Raven – Nanabush or Nanabozho. Coyotes and ravens are both very clever, stealthy animals and are well suited as avatars for the Trickster god. In the sassafras country of the southern states and Ohio valley, Trickster more often took the form of a rabbit. To the Seminole, Trickster rabbit, using duplicity, brought fire to humans by stealing it from the Sky People. The Choctaw envisioned trickster as a rabbit, but also as a hare.

The people taken as slaves from West Africa to America brought with them many gods including their own trickster. In the southern states, he became known as Br'er Rabbit. I’ve always suspected that many of the rabbit avatars of Trickster in North American were actually based on hares, so I wonder if Br'er Rabbit was also in fact originally modelled after the savannah or other African hare. Rabbits are evasive and clever enough, but there is something about the hare that is very different and wonderfully strange: a feral, bolder, less cuddly and more cunning creature than his cousin.

Rabbit's Wilder Cousin, the Hare (photo:  Joe Myrick)

Br'er Rabbit was originally a type of folk hero to the blacks in the American States, standing as an anti-establishment figure, both clever and rebellious. For a time though, this character had fallen in status, as many saw his irresponsibility and laziness (in fact, universal traits of Trickster gods worldwide) as a negative stereotype of black people. However, Br'er Rabbit has been somewhat reclaimed recently as a necessary figure of resilience and survival during the trauma of the Middle Passage. Bugs Bunny is perhaps Br'er Rabbit’s most famous descendent. While Bugsy may have the surname of Bunny, he’s definitely a hare, as shown by his large feet, long legs and rolling eyes. Bugs Bunny and his avatar, the Trickster follow their own rules, as does the sassafras tree.

Sassafras was a popular tree for everyone living in its range: first nations, blacks and whites alike.  The aromatic wood kept pests such as fleas and ticks away, and beds and dressers were thus made from the timber. Sassafras also repels termites and in areas where cedar wood was not plentiful, the lumber was used to build dwellings. The tree is most famous however for the use of its refreshing sap, which contains safrole, a stimulant and blood purifier. Traditionally, the leaves and twigs of the plant were deemed a tonic and became extremely popular brewed in a tea or other beverage, much as coffee is today. It is the safrole that originally gave root beer its spicy, woodsy flavour. However, chemical experiments conducted in the 1950s found safrole, when given in very large amounts to lab rats, caused cancer. As a result, root beer is now flavoured with “artificial flavours” which are probably just as dangerous as sassafras.

Sassafras Woods at Cootes Park, Hamilton, Ontario (photo: Kay Broome)