Comments on: Sassafras Rainbow

By: ICQB

ICQB — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:20:18 +0000

Sassafras tea is one of my favorites. My Dad pointed out the tree to me when I was little and when I got a little older I would often find saplings and brew tea with them. And once when I was backpacking with a friend, I gathered a sapling I saw on the trail one day and brewed tea for us that night over the campfire. She was impressed with the sweet flavor.

By: tammy

tammy — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:45:04 +0000

That sounds like a plausible explanation for the different colors to me. All the ones that have changed here are at woods edge, and I think they probably get similar amounts of sunshine. Next time I go up there I’ll pay closer attention to see if there is a pattern that could be due to sun exposure. Very curious now…

By: Mon

Mon — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:37:39 +0000

It’s still so warm here…waiting for signs of frost.
Great idea about the matching coloured string. Would love to hear about any differences you detect.

By: Sarah Head

Sarah Head — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:15:17 +0000

I don’t know if this holds true for the sassafras tree, but remember a scientist telling on the radio news that the colour of leaves depends entirely on the amount of sugars in the leaf. The amount of sugars depends on the amount of sunshine and therefore photosynthesis the tree has been able to do during the summer. This may explain why your different trees had different coloured leaves – is one in the shade and one in full sunshine?

Just a thought

By: tammy

tammy — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:18:36 +0000

Hi Wendy! just too much energy still above ground, so they just didn’t “feel” ready to me. Dunno if there are other criteria to look for… if anyone has more info on that I would be happy to learn — please share!

With more herbaceous herbs, I think there are different widely accepted criteria for perennials vs. biennials, etc. For example, burdock is a biennial (I think… going on memory here, yikes!) and does not make seeds the first year, so plenty of energy left in the root to be harvested, but when it makes seeds in the second year the root becomes dead and woody so should not be harvested then. I’ve heard many times that perennials need to wait until the third year, not sure why or how to id a third year root. Also not sure what kind of standard criteria may be applicable to trees, such as Sassafras…

By: Wendy

Wendy — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:31:02 +0000

Sassy Sassafrass! How wonderful!

How did you know the roots were not ready? What were you looking for? We can share this with Siobhan too.

Thanks for the great post and awesome pics.

wen