Sassafras

orange-brown bark or yellow bark.^[5] All parts of the plants are fragrant. The species are unusual in having three distinct leaf patterns on the same plant: unlobed oval, bilobed (mitten-shaped), and trilobed (three-pronged); the leaves are hardly ever five-lobed.^[6] Three-lobed leaves are more common in Sassafras tzumu and S. randaiense than in their North American counterparts, although three-lobed leaves sometimes occur on S. albidum. The young leaves and twigs are quite mucilaginous and produce a citrus-like scent when crushed. The tiny, yellow flowers are generally six-petaled; S. albidum and (the extinct) S. hesperia are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees, while S. tzumu and S. randaiense have male and female flowers occurring on the same trees. The fruit is a drupe, blue-black when ripe.