Sassafras J.Presl

Deciduous trees, usually dioecious. Terminal buds large, operculate; bud scales suborbicular, densely sericeous. Leaves alternate, clustered at apex of branchlet, papery, pinninerved or triplinerved, dimorphic, unlobed or 2-or 3-lobed. Raceme terminal, few flowered, lax, pendulous, pedunculate, with late deciduous alternate bracts at base; bracts linear to filiform. Perianth yellow; perianth tube short; perianth lobes 6, in 2 series, subequal, deciduous at side above base. Flowers unisexual or bisexual, pedicellate. Male flowers: fertile stamens 9, inserted on throat of perianth tube, in 3 series, subequal; filaments filiform, longer than anthers, complanate, those of 1st and 2nd whorls eglandular but those of 3rd whorl each with 2 shortly stipitate glands; anthers ovoid-oblong, obtuse but always emarginate at apex, all 4-celled, upper 2 cells smaller, or sometimes anthers of 1st whorl 3-celled (upper cell infertile) or sometimes 2-celled (cells fertile), those of 2nd and 3rd whorls all 2-celled, cells all introrse or lower cells of 3rd whorl lateral, sometimes those of 3rd whorl extrorse; staminodes 3 or absent, if present in innermost whorl, alternate to stamens of 3rd whorl, triangular-subulate, stipitate. Female flowers: staminodes 6, in 2 series, or 12 in 4 series; ovary ovoid, almost estipitate and inserted in short perianth tube; style slender; stigma discoid-dilated. Fruit dark blue, drupaceous, ovoid, with a shallow perianth cup at base; stalk elongate, gradually dilated toward apex, glabrous. Seeds oblong, apiculate, coat thin; embryo subglobose, erect.